So we have downtown:
One of a Thai, that I have talked about here before, She runs the
curling rink canteen in the winter time.
Saffron (Indian Food)
Murray's Curbside Treats 'n Eats (lemonade, chicken wraps, meatball
subs, Montreal smoked meat, poutine, fish tacos)

Does the Montreal smoked meat come out of a
vacpac shipped up from Schwartz's or someplace?
Though there are food trucks in places like
Austin that have smokehouses attached.

Noodo Monster (A new guy from Vancouver's Chinatown and his
girlfriend from Beijing who make incredible ramen bowls and who
started off in the industrial park last year but won a spot downtown
this year.)

Sounds like a winner - real Japanese-style
bowls with nice garlicky fatty chashu and
stuff like that?

As well we have The Gastown Diner which is now semi-permanently
located on a gas station parking lot in the other industrial area
near the airport.

Wiseguy Robin Wasicuna's food truck is parked this year except for
making an appearance at the 2018 Yellowknife Spring Trade Show. He
is unhappy that the Noodo Monster exists.

But welcome competition, says the clientele?
It would be ironic if the Wasicuna lost this
lottery.

and perhaps restaurants-within-a-restaurant.

We have had people who rent places one day a week, usually Sundays,
and serve a whole different menu than the owners do Mon to Sat. And
there's a small Vietnamese joint inside a grocery store. Even little
Inuvik way up north is onto that. T here is a Caribbean/ Pakistani
place open Sundays there in a otherwise standard Canadian cafe.

Yeah, places like that. Mostly the different
food is more interesting than the weekday food.
Danny Bowien had such a place in the San Fran
Mission, with the difference that his food and
the native food came out of the same kitchen
at the same time. The original restaurant was a
somewhat underused old-fashion American-Cantonese
place. and Bowien served hip Szechwan-fusion stuff.
I kind of liked it the first time but subsequently
found it a salt-laden few-tricks pony.

Funky counterculture unestablishments, those are way
above ground as far as I am concerned. Not that one
doesn't want to squash most of them, like whack-a-mole,
but they're certainly present enough and accountable for.

The Fat Fox that I alluded to deserves to survive. It was in that
run down annex of the Strange Range but shut down in June because

A lot of them I've seen, especially with the
excessively twee menus, deserve the swift sword
of death. Once in a while, one comes upon one
with something endearing ... the last such that
I saw was the Junk Cafe, with what some say is
the best hamburger in Penang. Lilli's need for a
beefy sandwich made it extra welcome.

the building was settling from foundation issues to point that they
had frequent water and sewer pipe breaks and a leaky roof and the
landlord refused to make repairs. They hope to re-open soon
elsewhere and do does the customer base.

And whom is the landlord planning to rent to
who will tolerate water and sewer breaks and
a leaky roof?

Icy Buckwheat Noodles
Categories: celebrity, Korean, fusion, pasta
Servings: 4

h - for the icy beef broth granita
4 c chicken broth
2 c beef drippings strained
- or 2 c reduced beef stock
1 sheet kombu (about 4"-x-8")
1 garlic clove, smashed
1 in ginger, sliced
4 dried shiitake mushrooms
fish sauce, to taste
kosher salt
h - for the charred peach-chili condiment
1 peach
6 red holland chiles, or your favorite kind
2 Tb brown rice vinegar
1 Tb fish sauce, preferably Red Boat
1 pn salt
h - for the mustard eggs
6 lg eggs
1 c dijon mustard
1/2 c white wine
h - to serve
roasted pork belly
assorted herbs
4 pk cold buckwheat noodles
edible flowers

Make the granita. In a small stock pot, combine
all stock ingredients. Bring to a boil, then simmer
for 2 hr. Strain through a fine mesh sieve set over
a bowl. Dilute with water to bring back to original
liquid amount, about 6 c, and season with salt and
fish sauce. Broth should be a bit saltier than your
desired taste because the flavor becomes a bit muted
when served cold. Pour into a small baking dish, cover
with plastic wrap, and place in the freezer. Using the
tines of a fork, stir the mixture every 30 min,
scraping edges and breaking up any ice chunks as the
mixture freezes, until granita is slushy and frozen,
about 3 hr. Particles can vary in size to make it more
interesting to eat! Keep frozen until ready to use.

Make the charred peach-chili condiment. Light a grill.
Add the peaches and chiles and grill, turning as
needed, until charred, about 10 min for the peaches
and 5 min for the chiles. Place in a container and
cover with clingfilm for 10 min. The chilies and
peach will steam in the container. Peel the peach
and discard the chili stem and any tough bits. Add
to a mortar and pestle with a pinch of coarse salt
until it comes to a coarse paste. Fold in fish sauce
and vinegar and keep in a container on your counter
for a day or two until the flavor intensifies and
develops through fermentation.

Make the mustard eggs. Drop raw eggs into boiling
water and cook for 9 min. Transfer the eggs to a
bowl of ice water until cold, then peel.

In a mixing bowl, combine the mustard and wine.
Roll the eggs through the mustard and pickle for
at least two days. It will be stable in mustard
for several weeks just like any other pickled egg!

To serve - Arrange your garnish plate. Arrange
sliced mustard egg, and your favorites of pickles,
thinly sliced meat (steamed beef or roasted pork
belly is our favorite), and herbs like sesame
leaves, pepper lives, thai basil, shiso, mint,
or even sliced chiles.

In a small stockpot, bring 9 c water to a boil.
Get an ice bath ready in a large salad bowl to
shock the noodles. Season the boiling water and
ice bath to seawater level salinity. Using a
noodle blancher, blanch each set of noodles in
the water bath and stir. After 15 sec, transfer
the noodle blancher with noodles to the ice bath
to shock immediately. After shocking the noodles
in ice water, aggressively shake the noodle
blancher to remove as much water from the noodles
as possible to not dilute your dish.

In a large mixing bowl, cut each pile of noodles
four times with scissors. The noodles are very
chewy and need to be cut down to serve. Season
the noodles with all your chili-peach condiment
and combine in your mixing bowl.

Divide the noodles between 4 bowls. Add 1 c of
granita to each bowl and cover all the noodles.
Garnish with edible flowers, such as anise hyssop
or garlic flowers. Serve with a fork or chopsticks
and eat with accompanying garnishes.

Author's Note: There are many types of "cold
buckwheat noodles" or nyeungmyun which you can
find at your local Korean grocer. Our favorite
is a blend of buckwheat and wheat flours, that
come in a brown hue from the frozen section. You
can substitute with ramen or your favorite noodle,
but we like the chewy density of this Korean type!

by Angela Dimayuga and Danny Bowien
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