Salade de Fruits Cafe (web site, map, 1551 West 7th Avenue, Vancouver BC, Canada, phone 604-714-5987) is an authentic, unpretentious French restaurant that is hidden away inside the French Cultural Centre in Vancouver’s South Granville area. One of Vancouver’s “not so well kept secrets for French Food” (FoodVancouver.com), this casual bistro serves up some of the best French food in the city, but in a home-style atmosphere with friendly French (and English-speaking!) service.
Weekdays at noon it feels like small-town France, where everyone decamps from their office for a couple of hours during which the mark of a truly civilized country parking is free by law. A fresh-fish dish or two, grilled prawns, moules frites, quiche or a sandwich it’s all competently made, sans froufrou, and mostly under $10.
Christine G. Louie describes the food at Salade de Fruits (writing in the Peak, SFU’s student newspaper, click here to read review):
The moules et frites ($11.99) arrived with puffs of steam wafting up, the P.E.I. mussels fat, perfectly steamed little morsels sitting in the most fragrant of broths. Accompanying the pot of shiny black shells lay a stack of fresh-cooked pomme frites, still glistening from their bath of hot oil. Crispy, golden-brown, and thinly sliced, the pomme frites were perfect for dipping into the pool of broth or the little container of their homemade mayonnaise. The calamari dish came in thick ringlets, fried to a glorious golden-brown, and looking ravishingly hot. The smoked-salmon baguette was clean tasting, jazzed up with capers and sweet onions, and sandwiched in the same lovely bread. The steak dish was pounded into a thin large slab, arrived on top of a layer of gravy-smothered frites.
Wow, I love those descriptions, thanks Christine!
Pictured below is some of the food we enjoyed: the Saumon Sauvage (Wild salmon entree, around $16), the Calmars à la Nage (Calamari dish, $9.99), and the Escargots à l’Ail (snail in garlic, $5.99, a French delicacy!). My friend also ordered the T-Bone Steak served with fresh crab (not pictured), which he described as juicy and of really high quality (he’s a regular of steak places around town).
Saumon Sauvage (Wild Salmon entree, $16.99) from Salade De Fruits French restaurant in Vancouver
Calamari dish (Calmars à la Nage, $9.99) from Salade De Fruits French restaurant in Vancouver
Escargots à l'Ail ($5.99) - Snail in garlic, a French delicacy! Food from Salade De Fruits French restaurant in Vancouver.
Fresh baguette (French bread) included with the meal at Salade de Fruits French restaurant in Vancouver
A friend dropped by last night with some shrimp that was just caught off of Vancouver Island. I looked for a recipe that would showcase the shrimp and found “Pasta with Shrimp Scampi” at Cooks.com (click here to view recipe). I first heated some olive oil in a pan and sauteed some chopped Jalapeno peppers and garlic. I then added the shrimp which I had peeled and deveined. After cooking the shrimp for a few minutes, I removed the shrimp from the pan and added white wine, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce and heated for a few minutes. Then I put the shrimp back in the pan with butter, salt, and lemon juice. I tossed some cooked spaghettini with the shrimp mixture and some fresh parsley, and voila, it was ready to eat (see picture below). The shrimp was bursting with flavor and I gobbled everything up, even though the recipe is supposed to feed 4 people!
Mui Garden Restaurant (map, web site, 5960 Minoru Boulevard, Richmond, BC, Canada, phone: 604-303-7977) is a Hong Kong style cafe that specializes in authentic Malaysian Curry.
This restaurant is well established within the local Asian community and I was one of the few Caucasian diners enjoying the food that night. However, I think the fantastic flavors at Mui Garden would appeal to many people regardless of their ethnic backgrounds.
For example, the Chicken Satays ($8.50, pictured below) were the most juicy, flavorful chicken satays I have yet tried, in my opinion beating out the satays at the more upscale Tropika on Robson. I also tried the Beef Brisket Curry served on chow mein noodles ($9.50, also pictured below), and the combination of spices was really great, making for a really satisfying main course to share with my friend.
I’ve eaten in Mui many many times and I always order the beef brisket curry (fish curry is good as well), green beans with minced pork, and anything else that my friends and I feel like at the time. I have never been disappointed with the food. Besides being Chinese, I’ve grown up eating Chinese food and Mui definitely one of the top with its awesome curry among other things.
Video from Mui Garden:
(above) Chicken Satay skewers at Mui Garden restaurant in Richmond ($8.50)
(above) Beef brisket curry on Chow Mein noodles from Mui Garden restaurant ($9.50)
