By Joanna Lee, Modern Mix Vancouver writer

A couple of weeks ago, I visited the newly opened Union Bar next to the Jimi Hendrix Shrine across the Georgia Viaduct in Chinatown. The restaurant is the fourth from the Cascade group (think the Cascade Room, Habit Lounge and Latitude, all further up Main Street). There are about 80 seats with about 10 to 15 seats at the bar. Much of the space is wooden and the walls adorned with various art installations. The food is Southeast Asian with several rice and noodle dishes, curries, pad thai and nasi goreng, as well as a variety of small plates, including beef satays, salads, and banh mis. Notables include veggie pakoras and the mildly sweet and spicy chilli chicken wings. The Cascade’s Arthur Wynne has created a diverse Asian-inspired cocktails list with a twist. For a sweeter cocktail, try the Banga #1, served in a fashionable little jar, or a virgin cocktail with Lapu Lapu cucumber juice, coconut water, calamansi and pandan syrup.

For a Sunday night, the Union was fairly busy and about 1/3 full. The vibe is hipster mixed with a bit of a trendy warehouse feel to it, with the use of long wooden communal tables, giving it a very simple, minimal, and clean feel. Staff are friendly and attentive and the prices are very reasonable. It is a fantastic addition to the Strathcona-Chinatown neighbourhood and is definitely worth several visits.  The Union Bar is open nightly from 5pm onwards.

The arrival of Burgoo has been a much-anticipated addition to the restaurant scene on West 4th since renovations started in the fall.

Still in its first few weeks of opening, Burgoo brings to Kitsilano an affordable, comfortable eating environment that already has people lining up out the door. With three previously existing locations, Burgoo brings with it a unique eating experience that can be enjoyed by families, couples, friends and tourists alike. Its cozy atmosphere is a welcome addition to the area. When you first enter the restaurant, you are welcomed by a closed off patio filled with wooden seating and windows facing the street. A little further in is an open area decorated with wood panels, tables and chairs that make you feel like you’ve just stepped into your best friends cottage.

For first time customers your challenge will be figuring out what to order from this extensive menu that covers just about any comfort food you could image. From three types of mac and cheese to classic stews this place has it all. For my first visit, I settled with an all time favorite – beef bourguignon ($18). Tender pieces of beef with carrots, and onions on a bed of mashed potatoes this dish was almost better than going home.

At such an affordable price it’s tempting not to think about going back again already. The menu has laid down a challenge for me and I intent to accept by trying as many new dishes as possible before 2013. Burgoo will be taking reservations soon but for now be aware – the front entrance is small and the wait can be cramped but well worth the wait.

Every January for 18 years, Liberty Wine Merchants hosts a fundraising event to start the bar high for the new year. Liberty is once again recruiting British Columbia’s finest food and beverage purveyors for Taste BC: a fundraiser for the BC Children’s Hospital’s Oak Tree Clinic.

BC Children’s Hospital’s Oak Tree Clinic provides specialized HIV care for infected women, pregnant women, partners, children and youth, and support services for affected families.  This event has raised a collective total of $186,336.00 since 1995 to benefit the Oak Tree Clinic.

Modern Mix Vancouver was there in 2009 and had enjoyed going from booth to booth, learning about new wines, sampling food pairings and bidding on silent auction items.    This year’s 18th annual celebration of local food and drink takes place January 24, 2012 (4:30-7:30 p.m.) at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Guests will taste, sip and experience BC’s finest wine, beer and spirits accompanied by tasty fare from local restaurants. Along with excellent food and drink, attractions include live music, door prizes, and a silent auction that rivals any other. Silent auction items include luxury items, local experience packages, destination packages and delicious products made by British Columbia’s own.

Tickets are $49.99 and available at Liberty Wine Merchant stores.

MMV Giveaway:  Modern Mix Vancouver is giving away a pair of will-call tickets to Taste BC.  Leave a comment below telling us your favourite wine and a random winner will be chosen from the comments below.  Be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you if you’re a winner.  Contests ends Sunday January 22nd.  

For additional entries, you can do the following things;

• For a second entry: Follow @ModernMixVan on Twitter and tweet “I want to win a pair of tickets to @taste_BC from @ModernMixVan http://bit.ly/ylLWkc RT to enter!”
• For a third entry: “Like” the Modern Mix Vancouver Page on Facebook and post on the wall “I want to win a pair of tickets to Taste BC from Modern Mix Vancouver! http://bit.ly/ylLWkc” 

Are you from outside the Lower Mainland core and don’t feel like making the trek out to Dine Out Vancouver this year?  Or maybe you couldn’t get a reservation at the time you want.  Or perhaps you’re already a veteran Vancouver foodie and want to try something new.

Not to worry – the 6th annual “Bite of the Rock” restaurant festival presented by the White Rock Business Improvement Association, features a similar format to Dine Out Vancouver.  Choose from 20+ restaurants and eateries located throughout White Rock, which have three course menus from $15.00, $25.00, $35.00 and $45.00.  From fine dining to to international cuisine to meals for the whole family, there is something for everyone to choose from.  For more information and restaurant listings, click here.

Dine Out Vancouver also offers special hotel room rates and packages, plus a full menu of unique food-themed events and activities, including culinary tours, cooking lessons, dinner-theatre evenings and special dining experiences. Throughout the festival, diners can take part in the Best Bite Awards by voting for their favourite festival experiences and be automatically entered to win the Dine Out for a Year contest. Dine Out Vancouver 2012 runs from January 20 to February 5.

Full restaurant list and menu will be available at tourismvancouver.com/dov starting January 9th, 2012.  Which restaurants are you thinking of checking out this year?

As I have previously written on Modern Mix Vancouver, Hidden Restaurant  is located on the second floor inside the Westin Grand Hotel in Downtown Vancouver. Every time I have gone there for a meal, I have been impressed by their extensive menu pairing and excellent service – going there for brunch was no different!

Our meal started off with complementary breakfast pastries – a raspberry crown, a maple syrup plait and a cinnamon swirl.  (By the way, my pasty names could be totally off, I found this image off Google and matched ‘em up).

I noticed that many of the breakfast and brunch menu items have a slight flavour twist to them.  For example, the Buttermilk and Lemon Waffle ($16) were made with lavender butter, which is a unique butter pairing, or the Mexicana Benedict ($16) which was topped with a chili-lime hollandaise.  I ended up ordering the Frenchie’s Breakfast Poutine ($15) which consists of two poached eggs served over roasted potato hash, little qualicum cheesery curds and topped with hollandaise.  I liked how the hearty serving of fresh cut potatoes was the focus of this meal – often in breakfast dishes, hash-browns are off to the side.

My friend ordered the Sausage Split ($19), which is a breakfast spin off from a banana split, consisting of three poached eggs on hash browns stuffed between a roasted toulouse sausage and finished with a sweet pepper relish.

We also ordered coffee, and our server was thoughtful enough to put our last complementary refill in a disposable cup so we could keep the coffee with us while walking around downtown.  Not too many places would offer to do that – I think other breakfast restaurants have a lesson to learn from this!

Lastly, if you are a local resident of Vancouver, you get 25% off your bill for breakfast & brunch at Hidden Vancouver!

We started off with the Cornmeal Crusted Scallops.  I enjoyed the contrast between textures – the soft, moist scallops paired with a subtle, grainy, breaded crunch of cornmeal.  The small cauliflower accents were neutrally flavoured so it didn’t take away from the seasoning of the scallops.  The 16-Month Aged Prosciutto Salad was very spring-like and refreshing, with crisp ingredients like strawberries and cucumber. The neutral taste of bocconcini is a good choice of cheese to pair with the salty prosciutto.

The Herb Risotto with Prawn was soupier than I expected it to be and not overly seasoned – a nice interlude between some of our more flavourful dishes.  The $6 “add prawn” meant you got three small prawns, each the size of your thumb, on top of your risotto.  The Potato Gnocchi was my favourite dish of the night.  The texture was light and fluffy (as good gnocchi should be), with the perfect amount of chewiness.  The rocket veggies (arugula?) were cooked in a way that reminded me of spinach.  An overall, well-balanced dish that was likely carefully crafted with care and attention.

For dessert, we had an Eggnog Sundae and some sort of Orange Yogurt dessert.  (Exact names aren’t listed on the website, so I forget what they are called).  The Orange Yogurt was yummy in its separate components (candied citrus peel, gelato, some sort of marshmallow-y log, etc.) but combined together, the flavours didn’t seem to come together.  I liked the flakes of gingerbread in the Eggnog Sundae, it was a creamy dessert served parfait style – reminded me of cookies and cream.

To get a good variety of appetizers to try, we started out with The Fusion ($11) which consisted of a trio of chilli chicken cut up in a moderately spicy pepper sauce, the fusion salad which had a tart but refreshing black salt vinaigrette dressing, as well as two lamb samosas (minced lamb and peas) served with green apple mint and tamarind date chutney dip.

"The Fusion" - A trio of chilli chicken, fusion salad & lamb samosa served with green apple mint and tamarind date chutney.

For our main course, we ordered the Lamb Vindaloo ($14), Shitake Prawns ($17) and of course, everyone’s favourite Indian dish, Butter Chicken ($14).  At first, the metal bowls which the food came served in seemed small – but be warned, Indian food is typically very rich, flavourful and creamy – a little goes a long way!  I was pleased that all three dishes we ordered were sauce-y, so we could dip our Garlic and Chive Naan ($4) in it, or spoon the sauce onto the Pulao Basmati Rice ($4) that we ordered.

The Butter Chicken, our favourite of the three dishes, was delicious, with tender cubes of chicken in a creamy fresh tomato and pureed ginger, garlic, fenugreek herb and cinnamon sauce.  There was a perfect balance of sweet and savoury flavours, and the creamy sauce absorbed nicely into the rice and naan.  The Shitake Prawns has succulent, peeled prawns in the sauce which was cooked in a ginger, garlic, tomato, onion and tumeric sauce.  The tumeric spice gave the dish a distinct South Asian / Middle Eastern taste.  The Lamb Vindaloo had generous portions of braised lamb cooked in a sauce of red chillies, vinegar, tomatoes, onions, and star anise.  We thought the star anise (licorice flavour) added a nice touch to the dish, however, it seemed like the vinegar was over-powering the other flavours and gave the dish an unbalanced sour flavour.

Butter Chicken and Garlic and Chive Naan

From only ordering the appetizer trio and three, creamy meat dishes, giant pieces of naan and a full helping of rice, we had more than enough food to doggy-bag home for lunch the next day.  I’m pretty sure Indian Fusion is one of those restaurants where no one leaves the slightly bit hungry. Lastly, after a full, hearty, meal, the restaurant’s Kitsilano location is great for taking an evening stroll to work off that butter chicken you just ate!