Lunch Around Town

The Need for Spicy Lunch: My Feelings Around the Evolution of Fusion Over 30 Years

Black Pepper Halibut Cheeks at Potluck Hawker Eatery on Cambie

Vancouver is wet and rainy through the winter – and occasionally in the summer (as I write this, June-u-ary is now upon us).

In my lunch world this calls for two things:

-Spicy food (usually Asian) and

-Noodles!

I tend to go out to enjoy things I normally would never cook for myself in the middle of the day. Asian food – be it Chinese, Thai or Vietnamese. These cuisines are ingredient heavy (with lots of veg to prepare) and, well, messy to cook for an audience of one - wok splatters create horrible messes that require gratuitous grease-cutting dish soap to clean up.

I don’t generally deep-fry at home and, quite frankly, if I am going to go out for a bowl of pho or noodles, I personally always look forward to ordering a side of crispy rolls, fried dumplings, or a pancake or crepe of some kind as well.

This past January I discovered a new favourite spot: Potluck Hawker Eatery on Cambie Street. Aptly named, Potluck provides an instant first-class ticket to fire-hot stir-fries, soft noodle dishes and the fun, pan-Asian ideal of not having to choose between Malay, Thai or Vietnamese when ordering a few dishes.

The chili, vinegar, umami-forward cooking doesn’t have a specific passport stamp, reminiscent of Portland’s Pok Pok, LA’s Night + Market or San Francisco’s Mission Chinese Food. Potluck proudly displays all of these restaurant’s published cookbooks alongside essential dry goods and legit condiments that make these dishes come as alive as part of the restaurant’s décor.

Potluck proudly walks the line of all those modern takes on specific cuisines.

Best Durian Wallpaper decor at Potluck Hawker Eatery on Cambie. I am a lover of well considered restaurant bathrooms.

As a cook, I have always been a purist when it comes to preparing traditional cuisines. Each has a certain ingredient larder and certain techniques that accompany their identity and enduring larders. As a young cook, I hated the “fusion” cuisine that was huge in the nineties and staunchly preferred the classical French school of cuisine. Strangely, I was smitten with the food of Jean-George Vongerichten. I loved his masterful and clean dishes full of vinegar, sweetness, fire, deep umami and salty textures. His food was laser-beam focused even though it combined ingredients from many cultures presented within the modern dining context of NYC. It was also executed with perfect French technique, without the heavy hand of think sauces and gratuitous use of dairy.

Thirty years later and after having worked a full career in food and wine, I feel differently about “fusion” cuisine – especially on the West Coast of Canada, where it is inescapable. I participated in developing a cuisine in British Columbia that had the natural advantage of a non-stop parade of seasonal bounty cooked by and for an audience from all over the world. British Columbia is a diverse province, full of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, South Asian and Persian communities that bring their culinary traditions to local ingredients. It is almost impossible to be served a plate in Vancouver that is not influenced by the person who created it.

I think many British Columbians experience this phenomenon when travelling: we often don’t realize how much international food we eat on a regular basis or even cook at home when we are away. I just spent two weeks in Japan and every five days or so, after eating a very Japanese diet of fish, rice and pickles in different various iterations over the course of the day, I was dying for both a fiery curry or a bowl of pasta. My body and palate craved variety.

Our diets as Vancouverites (especially lunching foodies) are kaleidoscopic and our cravings literally rotate to our favourite spots as we dine out on dim sum, dumplings, curry and pho all in the same week or create similar creations in our own kitchens.

Fish Sauce foward lunch at home inspired by my favourite Thai & Vietnamese salads around town. Tomato season edition.

My own “eating” revolves first and foremost from what I have bought that week at the market or favourite grocery, butcher, or bakeries around town. I make a week’s menus around what looked good to buy or was coming into season or I had privileged access to. Second, I keep an extensive pantry of spices and condiments at home that allows me to give into whatever cravings or cultural dishes I want to make. The weather and my mood most definitely play into these needs and cravings. And for those days when I crave a certain dish, other people’s company or just want to be a guest or taken care of as “a regular,” I will perch at the bar of my revolving list of favourite restaurants that make my favourite dishes far better than I ever could. We are so lucky to have an open invitation to rooms offering specialized spices, sauces and ingredient combinations far more complex than I could reproduce.

This is the beauty of living in a city like Vancouver – a veritable treasure trove of small, owner-operated, family-run establishments who lovingly combine all of these factors together into brief and exciting respites for an hour – on a rainy day or anytime.

- Heidi