So It Begins...Dine Out Vancouver 2013

It's been a nearly a year since my last post on here, what is "en foote", why it's journey of life. In the last year, I've had the fortune to spend over 3 months trekking around much of Europe http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/ritawritatravel/1/tpod.html for my travel blog, meet new friends, explore a number of cities in countries. In just over a month, I'll be on African soil, albeit for just a short trip in Morocco.

Life is a celebration no matter what we do, where we go, who we're with. At the end of it all, it's a journey we can look back on and smile at. Had the world ended on Dec 21st 2012, there was little that I wished I had been able to do. With the world continuing as I believed, this is a time to continue that spirit and keep on living, and what helps us keep us living? Why food of course.

For us lucky ones, food more than just feeds us. Moreover, dining out is an experience to share with friends, it is the experience of a meal in an environment. I am not the most experienced foodie, but I like good food and eating, and sharing it with friends. This year my restauranting days begins at Five Sails Restaurant at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver.

Five Sails is always a hot spot during dine out, with reservations booked up early on. A tip from my brother secured me and my friends a table on the opening weekend of the festival. We were able to get a table by the window, just to the left of the sails as we looked out into the night sky. With the heavy fog currently hovering in the city, we felt a trippy looking outside. It was almost as if we were aboard the Titanic in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean without the waves.

Having previously scoped out the menu, it didn't take us too long to make up our minds. Between the four of us, the only dish we didn't cover was the gnocchi. Beginning with appetizers, the ravioli with steelhead salmon and dungeness crab was stands out unique from the salad and roasted porcini mushroom soup, though reportedly it was short of amazing given that the pasta was a bit too chewy and the spinach a bit mushy. My soup was nice and light with good flavor, though the lone crouton was too lonely and could have used a few companions. Good reviews on the salad.  We were offered walnut cranberry bread to go with the appetizers, which had a good flavor combination between the nuts and fruit. The bread was a bit hard to cut and required some tearing, but such is the case with most dinner buns.

Onto the main course where we had 3 orders of the soy glazed marinated sablefish to 1 of boneless Wagyu ribs. Both would be good choices as they were satisfying in taste and presentation. I quite liked the sablefish and the sauce grew on me throughout the course. A good portion and smooth texture, it left us wanting more in a good way. The accompanying shimejii mushrooms went well with the sauce and also had us wanting more. Wanting more is always a good thing right?

Dessert - usually my favorite course saw both options arrive at our table, the luxe lemon mille-feuilles and an apple strudel and tart with homemade pistachio ice cream. Leaving the better for last, the presentation of the strudel and tart left more to be desired and nothing too special, though the pistachio ice cream was liked. The luxe lemon mille-feuilles was paired with a chocolate wonton - strange I know. Whereas the apple option was paired appropriately in terms of flavor, the chocolate was an oddity I could have happily done without as it didn't go well with the lemon and phyllo pastry concoction.

The chocolate sits in a tiny ball (not pictured) beneath the fried ends of the wonton wrapper that stretched above the plate, oily and unnecessary as it made for messy eating as the wrapper flaked off as you try to eat it. Now, the lemon and phyllo was beautifully together with just the right amount of tang and creamy texture. My only complaint was that the phyllo was card hard to gently cut through. The trick to cutting a bite sized piece? You'd have to do a quick jab down with your fork.

Overall a good meal, that while not the most filling was fairly satisfying as our later seating allowed us to chat after dinner in the restaurant. Add points for atmosphere and great service, this is a place to check out whether you see the North Shore mountains through the windows or not.