Recently, I went to Vancouver, a charming city, set in the midst of a truly beautiful landscape. This being my fourth trip in the same number of years, I ought to know the city well by now. But every trip brings its own discoveries.
This year, it was finding Oyama Sausage Factory on Granville Island. It is the absolute best charcuterie this side of the Atlantic. And trust me, I was rapturous enough over the options in Montreal. We picked up a sampling of Oyama goodies one Friday morning — duck prosciutto, Pamplona chorizo, wild boar salami with rosemary, head cheese, bresola, and a hunk of aged manchego, plus a baguette from one of the many bakeries in the Public Market — and headed north on the Sea-to-Sky Highway towards Whistler. The only thing missing was a bottle of wine in a paper bag! Er, we went back for more the next day.
Salami, chorizo, head cheese, prosciutto di San Daniele, manchego, duck prosciutto - Photo by L. Ngu
We also returned to Hapa Izakaya on Robson Street, which I discovered on my last trip. A Japanese pub where the drinking is the star, Hapa serves lots of mini-plates, both sushi style and cooked, that one washes down with a fine sake. We opted for the house sake, which is served from dramatic, ice-chilled bamboo bottles. We ordered sake and soy stewed beef tendons, albacore sushi, grilled whole squid, mackerel flame-roasted at the table (smelly!), and a Korean-inspired hot stone pot of rice with mixed wild mushrooms. Everything was killer.
House sake at Hapa Izakaya - Photo by L. Ngu
Because of my experience at Hapa, I was delighted to find some izakayas here in San Francisco. My favorite so far is Umami. You can’t go wrong with anything here.
