It has been precisely three years since my first Dish column.
The first piece I wrote was about the burgeoning food truck scene down at the Shipyards Night Market at the bottom of Lonsdale.
That column was a trial run for me, assigned by the editor. Let’s see if this Chris guy can string a coherent sentence or two together about foodie stuff. I showed up for that assignment with my little spiral-bound notepad and camera, feeling a sense of exhilaration as I ordered food from people who had no idea that in a short few days my impressions of their dishes would appear in print. It was a rush and I really couldn’t believe that I had a shot at this gig. Who wouldn’t want to try out all the new restaurants on the Shore and then wax lyrical about them?
This is every bit as fun a job as it was back then. In fact, it’s become even better as North Shore dining continues to evolve into its own distinct thing. Each meal now feels like a new piece in an epic puzzle, one of those intricate mosaic ones in which every piece is a self-contained image that contributes, in turn, to a much bigger picture.
The Night Markets have kicked off again for the season and it felt like a fitting way to mark my three-year anniversary with The Dish to visit the food trucks, which have grown exponentially in number and globally in culinary cultural representation since that first column.
On this visit, the sky was angry and blueberry-sized drops of rain hammered everything underneath them, ricocheting off the pavement and soaking every living being in sight from the knees down.
Despite North Vancouver’s signature meteorological phenomenon, eager diners queued at the trucks, taking shelter under narrow pop-up awnings. I joined the queues, which were admittedly a bit smaller than those you’d encounter on a sunny Friday evening, with my rain slickered family. We were out to try completely new fare from trucks we hadn’t yet frequented over the years.
There were a number of businesses I had not encountered before, including newcomer Island Time, specialist in Guyanese cuisine. The truck’s owner and operator was keen to find new audiences for his fare and offered up generous samples to me and my son, The Boy. He tempted us with a chicken wing each, which prompted us to pick up a 10-pack of them for our stroll through the lane of trucks that line the Shipyards. The wings were deep brown in colour and boasted rich, caramelized flavours of a simultaneously tart and savoury marinade made with what I suspect was caraseep, a spice-infused, cassava-derived browning and flavouring agent common in dishes from Guyana. It was $10 for the wings.
My daughter’s appetite craved something a bit tamer and comforting for our rain-soaked stroll, so she chose a Monsieur Fred crepe, filled with egg, ham and mozzarella cheese, acquired at the diminutive, jellybean-shaped pop-up cart, Chouchou, that specializes in traditional French crepes. The Monsieur Fred was $8.
My wife DJ and I shared a positively phenomenal dish, the Crack Salad from Chinese street food vendor Le Tigre. The salad featured Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, cabbage, capers, cracked chillies, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese. The salad was an explosion of flavour, crunchy, salty, tangy, fresh and earthy, rich and round, and was a great deal at $8 for a generous takeaway box. Le Tigre chefs and operators recently opened a successful bricks and mortar restaurant, Torafuku, on Main Street near National Avenue in Vancouver.
DJ picked up a Melt City Classic grilled cheese sandwich from the eponymous Melt City truck. Asiago, Monterey Jack and havarti filled two light, buttery and perfectly toasted slices of sourdough bread. Sriracha mayo tipped the scales from ordinary to extraordinary on this sandwich, which was $8. The Boy went for one of his favourite meals, butter chicken, this time in naan kebab format from popular food cart, Soho Road.
I was woefully indecisive about my meal, so opted for two treats: first, it was back to Island Time for an order of densely packed, silky and satisfying homemade Tilapia Fish Cakes served with a simple but tasty side of fluffy rice and beans.
My second “main,” a close contender for best in show next to the Crack Salad, was a dish of 48-hour Achiote Pork with fried polenta, heirloom tomatoes, peashoots and pickled onions from Pressure Box, a self-styled “progressive mobile eatery.”
This was a magical combo of flavours, with the luscious, beautifully browned and tender pork lifted emphatically by the pickled onion and tender, springy cornmeal cake. The dish was $10.
Friday Night Market at the Shipyards runs from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. through the summer.
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. North Shore News dining reviews are conducted anonymously and all meals are paid for by the newspaper.
