Korean Dining on the Road and a Rocky Breakfast

Pictured top left: Sonny & Maggie Huh (Photo courtesy of Rob Davidson)

Bottom left-right: The Yukon flatbread; Owner Suzanne Fielden holding the chocolate-banana flatbread

Photos by Anya Levykh

I received a mysterious invitation the other night, to the restaurant equivalent of a travelling circus. To wit, a restaurant from Whistler—Celadon by name—has taken its act on the road and for one night, brought its innovative takes on traditional Korean dishes to Vancouver.

A group of us met at Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks (the demonstration kitchen is ideal for these events), where owners (and siblings) Sonny and Maggie Huh greeted us with a light, slightly sweet, cucumber and pomegranate cocktail on a base of soju. Sonny is the kitchen man, and my counter seat gives me the perfect vantage point to watch his slightly terrifying knife skills. As for the food, it is anything but. Dishes like green onion pancakes are made in quick succession before our eyes. A two-year-old kimchi pickled with pear in a sweet, beet-marinated broth plumped up with King crab and fresh handmade noodles is a soupy, slurpy delight that is sent over the top with a barely-poached quail’s egg.

Quail’s egg makes a reappearance in the signature bibimbap salad, a bright, spring-like affair that holds fresh raw sea urchin and salmon, topped with roe. Sea urchin is the foie gras of the sea, and when mixed into the salad, creates a richness of texture that contrasts perfectly with the crispness of the shoots and carrot, and the earthiness of the wholegrain rice underneath.

One of the favourites of the evening is a large, juicy kimchi burger made from Pemberton Meadows beef. The meat is sandwiched with kimchi, avocado, tomato, lettuce and melted Jack cheese between two halves of an airy ciabatta bun with perfect-density and just enough crispness in the crust to give texture without creating a bite-and-tear effect.

What with all the snow, one hardly needs an excuse to head up to Whistler, but Celadon definitely has provided me with some incentive.

Rocky Mountain Flatbread Launches Breakfast Menu

I will admit right up front that I am a wholehearted lover of the pies at Rocky Mountain Flatbread, but I don’t think there are many that aren’t. And now you don’t have to wait until lunch to enjoy their organic, seasonal and sustainable offerings. Last week the restaurant launched a new breakfast menu and invited some fellow food media types to partake and pass judgement.

Chocolate-banana pizza to start certainly got things off on a sweet note, but whole-grain muffins balanced things out nicely. Everything on the menu follows the party line, like the wild boar bacon, which guest stars in an omelette with mushrooms, cheddar and mozzarella, as well as on a “Yukon” pizza with organic Yukon potatoes, fresh tomatoes and red onion, organic egg and fresh chives. The market flatbread is a vegetarian version that changes daily, depending on what’s in season and available. Ours had fresh, herbed pesto, goat’s cheese and egg, along with the veggies.

There are also fresh-squeezed juices, including a fantastic beet-carrot-apple and a zingy ginger-orange. Check it out daily from 8:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.