SHABASH!

It was odd. Sausage served in a curry ketchup. I’d never heard about it before, but, apparently, it’s a popular street food Germany. It all started a few years after the end of WWII, when a certain Berliner named Herta Heuwer had ketchup, curry powder, and sausages in her stark kitchen and a funny idea. [...]

A little gem has emerged near the corner of Granville and Davie streets, on the heel of downtown Vancouver. Deepak Suri, the owner of another little known secret farther south and east, in Vancouver’s Little India (Tandoori Delight on East 50th, off Main Street), recently opened a new shop selling covetous wraps and chaat (Indian [...]

This review is part of the Westcoast Chai tasting series. Masala Chai @ Curry 2 U Chai profile • Even 7-Eleven would serve spicier masala chai • About 16-oz serving, about $2 I don’t get it, Curry 2 U’s tiffin lunch was a hit, but when I ordered their masala chai to go with my [...]

If you’ve watched a Mumbai travel show or India business report, you may already know of Mumbai’s dabbawallahs (dabba, also known as a tiffin, is a multi-levelled steel container for transporting food, wallah is a vendor). Every day, 5,000 dabbawallahs take to the bursting streets of Mumbai and its boroughs to deliver over 200,000 home-cooked lunches to [...]

This review is part of the Westcoast Chai tasting series. Of course, it was good! Masala Chai @ Rangoli Chai profile: Admire this chai as the new secretary would admire Don Draper, or vice versa. About 12-oz serving, $2.50 Piping hot chai at Rangoli   Sometimes I think that I might as well be the [...]

Sid and I are on a Paleo Diet, which requires us to not eat grains, dairy, sugar, and most processed foods, in order to feed our bodies the food we’ve been designed to eat since Paleolithic times, so the Paleo dieticians say. I’ve been on similar healthy eating regimes that focus on eating whole, unprocessed [...]

If you are in Vancouver today, you know how I feel—cold and damp. It feels like the freezing rain is actually seeping into your body but you’re inside. In the winter, Vancouverites describe this particular type of cold as “sticking to your bones.” It takes a long time for your fingers and toes to warm [...]

I’ve been obsessed with chai since I started my new series, Westcoast Chai, which documents my hunt for the best masala chai vendors in the Vancouver region. But with this curiosity for all things in spiced tea format comes its drawbacks—recently, I’ve experimented with two chai spin-offs, a bourbon chai and hot chocolate chai. Both [...]

This review is part of the Westcoast Chai tasting series. Masala Chai @ Rasoee Chai profile • For those who like the taste of melted milkshakes. • About 12-oz serving, about $2.50 Friendly, enthusiastic staff, check. Spotless restaurant, check. Modern, sophisticated ambience, check. Modern, sophisticated chai, [uncomfortable silence]. Rasoee puts a lot of effort into [...]

This review is part of the Westcoast Chai tasting series. As I walked up Main Street in Mount Pleasant hunting the antique stores for a new cabinet to store our growing scotch and cookbook collections, I noticed a rustic store sign above me. “Chai,” it said. And, suddenly, I was inside. Masala Chai @ East [...]