Best Pick: Harambe

Harambe @ 2149 Commercial Drive

I discovered Ethiopian cuisine many years ago when I lived in Houston. It was a brief encounter but left a tantalizing memory. As a child, I was a fastidious and prim and loathed getting his hands dirty playing, and I must say that hasn't changed much over the years. It went against something deep inside me to eat using my hands as utensils, but it was a pleasantly dislocating experience. More importantly, the food was fantastic - like no other type of food I've tasted, but highly refined and exploding with new flavors. You had a large variety of small servings of different dishes that you pick and choose from with each bite. The bread itself was delicious and strange and wonderful. Everything was new and mystifying and exotic.

I was happy upon moving to Vancouver to discover the town is blessed with quite a few Ethiopian restaurants. After trying out most of them, I've come to the conclusion that I like Harambe the best. Nyala on Main street is not authentic. The one time I ate at Axum on Hastings I got sick. Addis Cafe is decent but not quite as good as Harambe. Fassil on Broadway I've never tried because every time I drive by there they're closed.

I've been to Harambe innumerable times over the years, and every single time I get the same thing: The Chef's Choice Platter. I never tire of it. If you're going to try Ethiopian cuisine for the first time, my recommendation is to go to Harambe and try the Chef's Choice Platter. I feel it does a great job of conveying what is so amazing and unique about Ethiopian cooking.

The interior of Harambe is quite pleasant, too. The walls are festooned with a smattering Ethiopian cultural artifacts of different kinds as well as ethnically tinged art in different styles by different Ethiopian artists. Really very classy as well as being warm and inviting and relaxing.

This mural painted on the bar is also really cool:

At Harambe you have the option of sitting at a western-style table or sitting at a table with traditional Ethiopian seats, which are kind of like stools, and a small table closer to the ground. I always sit at the western-style tables, but it would be fun for a group looking to experience the whole Authentic Ethiopian Cuisine Package to sit at the traditional table.

They even have special Ethiopian chai tea at Harambe, which I get every time, as it goes very well with the food.

But perhaps the coolest thing about Harambe is that they make their own honey wine or mead, called "Tej". I always get a glass of this stuff when I go there. It's absolutely marvelous. Very sweet and mellow and easy to drink, I suspect it not to have a particularly high alcohol content. The fermented flavor is somewhat reminiscent of the Kombucha Wonder Drink. Rather than tasting strongly alcoholic like wine, it's more like the taste of juice that's gone a little off.

You have the choice of ordering any number of dishes that come as stand-alones, but I never do this because I would feel it wasn't worth the money. The dishes are somewhat expensive. Even the Chef's Choice Platter is fairly expensive at $12.99 for one and $24.99 for two. But at least when I order the Chef's Choice Platter I always feel like I got my money's worth due to the big variety of items. It makes for a very satisfying meal, whereas eating a big serving of the same dish would get boring.

This is what the chef's platter looks like:

(click for larger view)

It looks small, but I can assure you this is a big serving. The above is a serving for two people. Kweepo and I were just barely able to polish it all off. When you order the Chef's Choice Platter you also get a few extra rolls of injera on the side. They're very generous with the injera. I've never run out. I always have some injera left over afterwards.

Ethiopian cooking is vaguely reminiscent of Indian food in the sense that you have a variety of sauce-based dishes - i.e. meat or lentis or beans in some kind of curry sauce - that you can eat in combination with a naan and rice. In Ethiopian cuisine, they use a special type of bread called "injera", which serves as the base accompaniment as well as the utensil. The injera is like a big, thick pancake. You rip off a piece with your hand and use it scoop up a bit of one of the dishes by pinching into the mound of your target dish using the piece of injera.

Though I've never gotten used to the whole eating with your hands thing, I find it to be quite fun to eat the Chef's Choice Platter, especially as a communal activity. I know the idea of eating with your hands would put a lot of people off, but it's a real shame because the food is so good. I have this idea that if Harambe opened up a downtown location where they could make some concessions in terms of the authenticity of the experience by offering forks and knives by default and perhaps altering the presentation of dishes slightly accordingly, without altering any of the recipes, this type of cooking could become a smash hit with the lunch crowd. It's hearty, tasty, healthy and different, without being too weird or exotic. I feel bad whenever I go to Harambe for lunch and it's empty. Although the last time we went it was thankfully pretty busy.

The Chef's Choice Platter comes with a whole bunch of different items:

3 MEAT ITEMS:

- Yebeg wot (lamb)

- Doro wot (chicken thigh)

- Alitcha wot (beef)

5 VEGGIE ITEMS:

- Shero wot (ground chickpeas)

- Misir wat (red split lentils)

- Tekil gomen (steamed cabbage)

- Gomen (boiled spinach)

- Yatekilt alitcha (sauteed carrot, string beans, potato and onions)

There's also some salad in the middle, though it seems kind of out of place. It seems to be the only non-authentic element here. But I have to admit that I do appreciate having some roughage present to cleanse the palate, and at least it's good quality salad and not lettuce or something. And it does go pretty well with the rest of the dish, surprisingly.

Here's a close-up of some of the items.

I don't even know where to begin describing the taste. All I know is that every one of these is good. The chicken is my favorite, with the red lentils a close second. The injera itself is wonderful - fluffy and tender and obviously freshly made.

They also have some other items on the menu that aren't included here, notably some fish dishes, which I may have to try the next time I go.

TOP PICK: Peaceful Restaurant

http://www.peacefulrestaurant.com/

The next in my series of favorite Vancouver restaurants is one I've been to more often in the last few years than any other restaurant: Peaceful on Broadway near the intersection with Cambie. Access is even easier now with the Canada line right there.

Why do I keep coming back to this place? Let me count the reasons:

◊ The food, first and foremost, obviously. It's good and interesting without being weird. The selection is big. (Peruse their menu here.) Their prices are reasonable. I've tried a lot of items on the menu and I haven't been let down by almost anything.

◊ The service is consistently good. The staff are friendly and helpful every time I go there. They recognize your face when you're a regular there, without necessarily smothering you with attention. The restaurant is laid out in a long shape with the kitchen right behind the seating area, so the waiters are literally right there if you need anything. You never have to wait for a waiter to come around or try to get their attention. They're attentive and professional without being cold and distant, quite a refreshing change from so many Chinese restaurants where the servers literally don't verbally acknowledge that they understood what you just said or even look at you.

◊ The food always comes out extremely quickly. Tonight we went there and ordered five dishes, naively expecting that that would keep them busy and we'd have time to go through each dish before the next came out. No such luck. The first dish came out not even ten minutes after ordering, and at an interval of one a minute, each of the remaining dishes arrived at our small table. I much prefer this to the alternative: waiting forever for each dish.

◊ They provide free tea. The first thing they do when you sit down is bring a big pot of tea. And it's pu-erh tea, not just ordinary jasmine. I'm sure other restaurants serve pu-erh, but most do not, and it helps distinguish them. When the tea runs out, they're very quick to replace it with a new pot. The tea goes very well with the food.

◊ They have a wide variety of uncommon ethnic dishes from regions that are not typical Chinese restaurant fare: Tianjin, Shanghai, Beijing, Yunnan, Xi-an, Xinjiang, Gansu and Shanxi in addition to the usual suspects like Szechuan. They specialize in northwestern cuisine, which is one of the less well-represented of China's many regional cuisines from restaurant to restaurant. You wouldn't know this if you didn't understand Chinese, because it doesn't say it in English on the restaurant's window, but it does say it in Chinese. Hence they have a number of lamb items on the menu.

◊ They make their own noodles in-house. It's one of the restaurant's big selling points and gimmicks. They can be justly proud of their noodles. You can see the cook spinning the noodles by hand in the kitchen behind the seating area. I took some shots of him at work while I was there tonight. Their noodles are flat out the freshest and best I've had at any Chinese restaurant. I've been to so many Cantonese restaurants where the noodles are literally inedible. I used to think Chinese noodles just weren't for me. But I hadn't tasted what real quality noodles are supposed to taste like. They prepare the noodles a variety of different ways - in the typical thin shape made by stretching the dough out, as well as the blade-sheared style and the gnocci-like "cat's ear" style.

We almost always discover some good new dish whenever we go back. This time around we got four of our favorite dishes and tried out one new dish we've never had before.

Xiao-Long Bao Steamed Buns ($6.50, filled with minced pork, ginger and a savoury sauce - 8pcs)

I get these almost every time I go. You can find these savory so-called "buns" at a variety of Chinese restaurants, but I really like the ones here. Some people have said they didn't like Peaceful's XLB, but I never had XLB before Peaceful, so they form my basis for assessing the dish, and so far I prefer them to any other XLB I've tasted at other restaurants in Metro Vancouver. I'm sure Richmond must have some killer XLB. Other XLB I've tasted either have a flimsy skin that breaks apart as soon as you touch it, releasing the precious cargo of liquid encased therein, or the skin is too thick and pasty tasting, or there's too little liquid inside, or they're dry... None of which have ever happened to me at Peaceful.

Peaceful Beef Rolls ($6.50, five-spiced beef rolled in a crispy green onion flat-bread & sweet hoisin sauce)

Another one I get often. Succulent, juicy and plump - Peaceful's beef roll is almost erotic it's so good. It can be a little bit greasy, but I don't mind. The frying makes the skin really crispy. Long's Noodle House has a nice beef roll that is drier and more wrap-like.

Mustard-Seed Vegetable Salad ($6.95, blanched carrots, celery & vermicelli tossed in mustard-seed oil dressing)

This is Peaceful's signature dish (according to me). I get this almost every time I go there. It's a great light appetizer that's like no other veggie dish I've ever had. The mustard-seed oil is what makes this one. It's crazy spicy and can nuke your nasal cavity if you're not careful, the way a big chunk of wasabi can, but that's part of the fun - inhaling frantically through each bite. It's different from the spice of jalapeno or red pepper, which it complements wonderfully.

This is a great side-dish to order no matter what main you decide to get because it's a good palate cleanser and cooler to have between bites of tangy or spicy mains. This time around I was a little disappointed by the dish because they didn't put enough mustard-seed oil, and it didn't scald your nose good the way it's supposed to.

Xin-Jiang Noodles ($9.95, a traditional blend of chicken, potato & hot peppers in a reduced star-anise spice sauce, served with thick hand-dragged noodles)

Peaceful has a lot of great noodle dishes, but this is one of my favorites. Look at those noodles, all uneven and thick. They're beautiful. This is supposedly a classic Xin-Jiang dish, although I've never been there. I did manage to find this dish in a restaurant when I visited China, but that was in Xi-an. And the amazing thing was that I actually preferred Peaceful's. The chicken was more meaty and tender and the sauce tastier.

What makes this dish is the big chunks of jalapeno and the well cooked pieces of potato. And the smoky, savory sauce. And the soft, delicate, unevenly shaped, freshly hand-stretched noodles. And the big chunks of lightly braised garlic. And of course, lots of big pieces of well-cooked chicken, bone-in, the way it's supposed to be.

They ask you how spicy you want it. I usually say not spicy because I seem to recall this one can be a bit much to manage if you ask for spicy. In the photo on the web site it looks like they've left the seeds in the jalapenos. That will make a big difference indeed. The jalapenos in our dish tonight had no seeds, and were quite delicious, just spicy enough without going overboard.

Xi'an White Lamb Stew ($7.95, a traditional lamb dish with napa cabbage, cilantro & bean vermicelli, in a light broth)

This was our first time trying this dish. It was the only adventure we took during our latest visit. It's again a regional staple, this time of Xi-an. (Ironic that I never tried it while there, instead trying a Xin-Jiang specialty.) For some reason they don't list the main ingredient of the stew - the big chunks of bread that dominate the dish. The lamb is quite soft and good, as is the bread and the broth. It's a delicate and interesting dish. The lamb taste is maybe a bit too much for me, though. Not the best thing I've had at Peaceful, but very interesting and good nonetheless.

These are some of the other dishes we've tried in the past:

◊ Yunnan noodles - Kweepo and I visited Yunnan, so we know what Yunnan noodles are supposed to taste like. They typically have either thin or thick rice noodles served separately, and lots of bowls of various things you put in the noodles. This was actually the first thing I ever tried at Peaceful. I was walking down Broadway looking for lunch one day when the word "Yunnan" caught my eye on their placard. I entered the restaurant specifically to try this item, to see if it was anything like what I'd experienced in Yunnan. It's a little different. When I tried it that day, they brought all the little bowls to the table but then they proceeded to mix everything together, which wasn't how I recalled eating noodles over there.

◊ Szechuan Dan Dan Noodles - Quite good and hearty and among the better dan dan noodles I've had.

◊ Szechuan Thousand Chili Chicken - Lives up to its name. There were more chilis than chicken chunks in this dish the one time I tried it, but I recall it being quite good.

◊ Szechuan Broth Braised Fish - I got this together with the Szechuan Hot Chili Wonton once and the waiter thought I was crazy. The heat of the peppers combined with the heat of the soup makes this one quite challenging. Not the best version of this dish I've ever had. There's a restaurant in Crystal Mall near Metrotown that serves a more authentic and tasty version of this, except nobody there seems to speak English, so it's hard for a white boy like me to go there. Well, not really. Their menu has photos, so you can point your way through.

◊ Szechuan Cucumbers - A great, simple appetizer. The big chunks of crunchy sweet cucumbers and go great with the hint of spiciness from the red pepper flakes and the bite of the peppercorn dressing.

◊ Beijing Zha-Jiang Mien - Quite good and less oily than the Dan Dan Noodles, and a good deal at only $6.95. They put a lot of noodles in there. When I order a noodle dish for lunch at Peaceful, I don't need to order anything else and I have a bit left over for another meal.

We've tried lots of other dishes, and we still haven't even tried half of the items on the menu, so we'll definitely be going back to do some more discovering for a good while to come.

TOP PICK: Saravanaa Bhavan

Saravanaa Bhavan @ 955 W. Broadway
http://www.saravanaabhavan.ca/

Starting with this post, I'm going to try to occasionally highlight my favorite restaurants in Vancouver. I'll call this series the 'top picks' series. These are the restaurants I go to on a regular basis because they're good, they're appropriately priced, and they are consistent at what they do.

I'm starting out with the well-known Vegetarian Indian buffet Saravanaa Bhavan on Broadway between Oak and Laurel. I tend to be skeptical of popular restaurants, because in my experience, more often than not, fame eventually gets to a restaurant's head, and they go downhill. Or popularity becomes an echo chamber in which crowds attract crowds, giving the impression of the restaurant being far better than it truly is.

Saravanaa Bhavan justly deserves all the praise that's been sung about it. I've been there probably almost 10 times over the years, and in a first in my entire life, rather than the food going downhill, it feels like the food only gets better every time.

Their buffet is always fresh and constantly renewed. The crowds help to ensure freshness. Every time I go there are some items I've never seen before. They have a huge variety of items on the buffet.

The interior is spacious without being well decorated. It's really a functional interior, with enough space to pack in large families of Indians. It was packed when we arrived on Sunday for lunch, and it stayed that way for most of our time there. Again, the place is frequented by Indians, testament to its authenticity. Having grown up a vegetarian in Houston, where there is a large population of Indians and many great vegetarian Indian restaurants, I ate vegetarian Indian food practically every week for a large part of my lifetime, so I know what good veggie Indian food is supposed to taste like. And apart from Saravanaa Bhavan, I haven't really tasted good veggie Indian food in Vancouver, though I've searched.

The food at Saravanaa Bhavan is very different from all the veggie Indian food I've had before. Perhaps this is because they are South Indian, or perhaps their cooks are particularly inventive. I don't know, but no matter how many times I go, they never let me down, with consistent quality and new surprises.

One of the best things about Saravanaa Bhavan is the variety of fresh breads. In addition to bringing you a fresh Naan, they also have these delicious lentil-based donut-like bread called Vada, amazing steamed rice cakes called Idli, some kind of deep-fried chapati-like bread, and even a whole fresh dosa. And of course, pappadum with great coconut chutney and tomato chutney. Everything is steaming fresh. This is what my plate looked like:

A crazy heaping mess of all sorts of amazing little items! That's why I love this place. I can revel in the delight of sampling all sorts of flavors, rather than slogging through a boring heaping mass of one dish with exactly the same flavor for the same price. I had about 12 separate items during this meal, every one of them perfectly delicious and totally unlike the others.

Even the desserts are amazing and unlike anything I've seen anywhere before. No gulab jamun in sight here. During our last visit they offered a curious spongecake-like confection infused with saffron juice and a wonderful substance that looked like tapioca at first sight but tasted nothing like the typical tapioca pudding dessert you find in Indian restaurants. They clearly are inventing their own new desserts.

Another great little touch is that each table has its own pitcher of water by default, so no having to stretch out that last quarter glass of water or struggle to get a waiter's attention to get some water. And anyway, the waiters here are everywhere and very attentive. Kweepo and I were asked no less than three times if we needed anything else.

The price for the buffet is $10.99 on weekdays and $11.99 on weekends. I don't know why the price increases on the weekend. The bill for Kweepo and I came out to $30 even including tips, which is admittedly a bit pricey for Indian food (I remember the buffets in Houston were $5). But it's hard to find good Indian food OR cheap Indian food in Vancouver, and Saravanaa Bhavan at least is reliably good and fresh, so I don't feel ripped off when I eat there.

I just noticed in the photo that they advertise a "$5 takeout lunch box". Now that's the price I want to pay for lunch. I will have to check this out.

I didn't know this until I checked their website, but apparently this is a chain. They have four locations total. The other three are all in Ontario.