Scallops again - but service is the key!

I was in Vancouver a few weeks ago and had a food encounter that kind of made my day.  We had gone to this restaurant as a second choice, the original destination had an hour long wait time.  We had walked 15 minutes to this one in the rain and cold and was told it could be half an hour.  After looking at the menu, we decided to stay and wait it out.  When we turned down offers from the bar, we were very graciously served with water while taking up space at the bar.  Score one.  As it turned out, a table was ready for us in 15 minutes.  Score two.

It was hard to make a decision on the menu, things that jumped out were braised lamb shank, duck breast and scallops.  After I ordered the lamb (because of the cold and the rain) and finished my first course of delicious mushroom soup, the server delivered a plate of super-sized scallops to the diner at the neighbouring table. The four jumbo scallops looked so good I couldn't resist. I took my chances and asked the server if it's too late to change my order. He thought so and I wouldn't have insisted (I should be embarrassed to even ask but I had nothing to lose).  But he very good-humouredly said he'd check with the kitchen. I was surprised when he came back and asked me what I wanted to change it to.  When I said "scallops!", he said, "Ï knew it!" and proceeded to let the kitchen know. He had obviously noticed our stares at the scallops when he brought it to the next table.  Score three!

It was worth the wait! The scallops were perfectly done, fresh and delicious!  And especially so because of the circumstances.  (Score four)  Two of my dining companions had the duck breast - also superbly prepared and the meat tender and flavourful.  (Score five)  It was one of the best dinners I've had for a while and I would say - it's in good part because of the service!

The restaurant is Crave on Main and I gave it a four star on TripAdvisor, only because one of us did stick with the lamb shank and it was a little dry.  That's one out of four, so it's less than perfect.  But the service made up for it!

What made it special

It was the scallops that did it for me at Frank's, it's scallops that did it again for me at the Crown Princess Restaurant on Bay Street in Toronto.  The first time I had scallops at this location, they smothered them in XO sauce even though it's perfectly fresh scallop in the shell.  But I was pleasantly surprised when I returned and ordered scallops the "Chinese" way - stir-fried.  The wonderful thing was it's not your typical Chinese scallop stir-fry where the scallops were thinly sliced and often bland and tasteless. (The only tasty exception I'd encountered was in a Chinese restaurant in downtown Halifax, but then that's seafood heaven, it would be hard to botch although there is still not enough "bite" to the scallops when they are thin sliced.)  The ones at the Crown Princess are whole flavorful scallops, perfectly cooked and presented, with pine nuts, green onions and sugar beans for a contrasting crunch.

Not recommended: Scallops in XO sauce

Another dish, sweet and sour pork, considered unsophisticated fare, was unusually well-made at this same restaurant.  The pork was lean yet retained its moisture in spite of the double deep-frying needed to keep it crunchy under the sauce.  And consistent with the quality, served in style on two pieces of crisp pancakes with fresh pineapples and peppers. Let me add, the pancakes didn't survive the crunch test at the end of the meal but the one piece of pork left did.

Sweet and sour pork

Honourable mention went to the moist and tender chicken with crunchy skin, described literally as "hand poured" - a process that is quite complicated.  The chicken is first steamed so that it is cooked.  It is then dried and  then put on a rack over a pan of hot oil.  Oil from the pan is then scooped up and poured over the chicken to crisp its skin without dipping the whole chicken in oil.  This way, the skin is crispy but the meat is not greasy or dry.  In some restaurants, it's called "oil poured" but here it is called "hand poured", likely just a marketing thing to avoid mention of oil and to emphasize the "hand-made" aspect - as if anything cooked could be otherwise.

Crispy "Hand-poured" Chicken

Pumpkin Seafood soup with lots of seafood chunks

Bamboo fungus and bean curd sticks with baby bok choi

Plain tasty shrimp

Great presentations:  Fish and Chinese broccoli
                                                           Egg tofu with mushrooms and greens 

Presentation is a key part of the style but in the end, it's fresh ingredients that made the meal.      

Frank at the Art Gallery of Ontario

After a focused couple of hours at the Art Gallery of Ontario, taking in the shows Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musee National Picasso, Paris, and Zhang Huan: Ash Paintings and Memory Doors, we thought we would treat ourselves to dinner at Frank, the restaurant at the AGO.  What a superb dinner it was!

We started with two appetizers which we shared - perfectly done seared sea scallops wrapped in what looked to be Spanish prosciuto (they called it jamon serrano).  But what I really loved was the shaved asparagus.  I can't remember if I've had asparagus shaved lengthwise before, but this version is definitely memorable -  it's crisp and soft at the same time, a great textural contrast to the scallops.  I doved right into the scallop without taking a photo - borrowed the one below from the Frank website but it's really not the same dish.

Photo from the Frank AGO site

The salt cod croquetas were delectable, especially with the black olive tapenade.  This was followed by the seafood paella which was so flavourful I could easily have another plateful.  This must be the "haute cuisine" version of the paella, I've never seen such a miniscule portion of the rice dish!  The seafood were all done just right.  There were lots of bay scallops and enough mussels, but they could have thrown in a few more shrimps (they called the lone ranger a prawn, but it is really a shrimp).

We wrapped up dinner with a "tarta de santiago" which is really a flourless almond torte - great texture and not overly sweet.   The service was attentive and thoughtful - it was one of the better dinners we've had for a while.