I recently ate at a Vietnamese restaurant that shall, in light of service (or lack thereof) and choice (or lack thereof), remain nameless because here at Vancouver Is Awesome, we’re about that positivity. In brief compass, this is what all happened: 27 years ago I was born and then many moons later, I became a vegetarian to help the environment, optimize my health, and avoid the brutalizing of animals.
If you’re wondering, I asked to make a menu item meatless, in response to which I got a blank stare and a deep sigh. Such a deadpan reaction surprised me since there is no better place than Vancouver to embrace vegetarianism and the server was doing just the opposite. I say this because I know a little about embracing vegetarianism, for I lived in another part of Canada where there was one vegetarian restaurant for miles coupled with the fact that I am just coming off the heels of a trip to Eastern Europe where meat was the forefront of almost every city (Hungarians love their sausage, whaddya know?) and if you don’t eat it, then you lose big time in the culture game like picking up the dreadful Go To Jail card in Monopoly: do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. I interrupted my airbnb host who started to excitedly suggest restaurants for traditional fare so I could tell him that I didn’t eat meat and there was yet a second of incurious distaste, after which he returned swiftly to yammering: “well if you change your mind, then there’s” something about a hunk of pork. Nevertheless, Eastern Europe is a truly remarkable part of the world with good pastries and beer; you should visit.
Back to Vietnamese food and vegetarianism or put this way in two words: CHAU VEGGIEXPRESS. Let’s talk about it.
Tucked imperceptibly between a Weeds (we all know it, that marijuana paraphernalia place) and a For Lease sign (the last time I checked) on Victoria Drive sits Chau, a modest vegetarian establishment serving delicious bowls boasting lychee-date broth if you order #8 and what I like to call glorious temptresses that trick your tastebuds into thinking you’re eating meat, but are really crispy kale spring rolls if you order #10. The fried shallots impart savoury texture and the creamy toasted coconut sauce gives sweet (but not guilty) relief.
It’s like every dish is a healthy lifestyle with sustainability as its undercurrent and pretty much negative calories that your body never realized it was missing until Chau arrived. And arrive Chau did, quietly and without pomp, after years of the small family behind it serving the community well as a neighbourhood delicatessen, which was not so much an ironic move as it was a diversified one to accommodate growing vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free needs.
#10, Rickety Rickshaw Bowl by Stephanie Low
One might think that the overly contemporary idea of Vietnamese, vegetarianism, and veganism - three words that never typically made close friends - would inevitably mean sacrifice somewhere along the way, but that isn’t the case and is in fact specifically guarded against by the family’s rich sense of history and desire to pass their roots along to the next generation. It is no secret that the family behind Chau attributes their success to the matriarch who was cooking at the age of 13 years old while working at a soup stall on the streets of Saigon, then as a young adult in a refugee camp in Indonesia after fleeing Vietnam in 1978, and has been perfecting her warm comforting recipes ever since. As a result, what’s perhaps most memorable about Chau (besides the craft beer, weekend mojitos, and coconut everything, be it in shake or tapioca form) is that in every plate can be tasted traditional Vietnamese flavours along with the crisp freshness of locally sourced produce and the satiated feeling that one has the power, by eating sustainable plant-based diets, certainly no cautionary tale in today’s age, to leave a much more responsible mark on planet Earth.
My vegetarian spirits overfloweth.
For more information on the menu, goodies, and other desserts, check out CHAU VEGGIEXPRESS.
