My Urban Suburban

A while back, I was invited (along with a few others) by Top Table Restaurant Group to visit Yaletown’s famed Blue Water Cafe to taste their innovative culinary creations.  Our adventures were to be captured by CBC television, for a special called The Great Food Revolution, in which producers were searching for food trends of the future.  

(Watch the clip here. We’re about 16 mins in.)

We were told that Executive Chef Frank Pabst’s Unsung Heroes Menu, would be featured, which includes such things as Sardines, Mackerel, Octopus, Sea Urchin,  Jellyfish and several other unlikely and underappreciated species.

Being a fairly adventurous and open-minded foodie, I figured at the very least, saying I tried sea urchin and jellyfish would make for a good story one day (similar to my story of eating whale while visiting Nunavut a couple years ago.)  So I eagerly accepted, determined to explore a new culinary frontier and hoping I wouldn’t make a fool of myself on national television by making an “omg, this is disgusting” face…

I shouldn’t have been surprised that one of Canada’s leading chefs was able to turn each of the dishes that appeared at our table into approachable and delectable preparations. 

The Sardine, which I assumed would be fishy and slimy, was firm in texture and mild in taste.  The Mackarel was fresh and bright in flavour, and the Sea Urchin was delicious!  And I kid you not when I say that I would definitely order the Jellyfish again.  I was expecting the texture of a rubber band (which you can hear me declare in the clip) and I didn’t have any expectations on taste, other than I assumed it wouldn’t excite my pallete.  I was wrong.  All of it was beautiful and brilliantly executed.

Blue Water serves up their creative and exceptional Unsung Heroes menu for one month, early each year.  The goal is to feature underused, abundant species of fish and shellfish, in order to help preserve the overused and underpopulated species. 

If you’re up for tasting something a little different, prepared beatifully and artfully, you might want to consider it…at ther very least, it will make for a great story one day!

You can read and learn more about the Unsung Heroes menu and all the incredible dishes from Frank Pabst and Blue Water Cafe in their Blue Water Cafe Seafood Cookbook, available for purchase here.

Watch CBC’s Great Food Revolution here.

PS - Kudos to another Top Table Restaurant, Araxi in Whistler, for being selected by Gordon Ramsay as the prize for the winning chef of Hell’s Kitchen Season 6.  This marks the first time a Canadian restaurant has been featured on Ramsay’s show.  Under the supervision of executive chef James Walt, the winner will have a unique opportunity to serve the world, with the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games at their doorstep.