A little bit western With a down-at-heel exterior, Ping’s Café (2702 Main Street) belies a sleek, modern interior complete with Rodney Graham art. Many might think yoshoku is izakaya-style food, but owner Josh Olson, formerly at Dunbar Street’s Modern Club, describes it as postwar Japanese Western-style food. Sample dishes include “regular” items like gyoza, edamame, and yakitori, plus pork cutlets, breaded seafood, and a Ping dog (grilled bratwurst with daikon).

Even nimble mental gymnasts will find it hard to figure out the connection between Crofton House School, Doolin’s Irish Pub, and the Starlight Casino. Now add golf courses, yacht clubs, movie-catering companies, and Big White Ski Resort to the mix. Give up? All are environmentally smart enough to use disposable cutlery made of wood.

Following in the lees of a column a couple of weeks back, here are more newcomers that can be found on local shelves.

We’ve recently hung out a lot with friends at Provence Mediterranean Grill (4473 West 10th Avenue). Each time, we’ve all gone for the trio of antipasti ($13). The pissaladière, salty with anchovies and sweet with long-cooked onion; pesto-y Mediterranean vegetables; farro salad with apple and fennel—it’s all good. Forced to pick only three, I’d say roasted free-range chicken, grilled chili squid, and maybe those haricots verts with the little black niçoise olives.

On Mother’s Day, the busiest restaurant day of the year, thousands of diners will see whether the Spot's new Thai and Tuscan menus match up to their tried-and-tested burgers.

The legendary Casanova purportedly ate 50 raw ones for breakfast before heading out on his amorous escapades. Today, as they have become more adventurous, Vancouver diners share his passion.

This weekend’s wine fest is a must-attend event that will put many old stereotypes to rest with head-turning new offerings

Your weekly food round-up

A new ingredient to keep in your fridge, sake kasu is a fermented rice mash that’s loaded with essential amino acids and is high in glutamines (hello? the umami factor). It’s what’s left after Masa Shiroki has hand-made his sakes at Artisan SakeMaker (1339 Railspur Alley, Granville Island). At C Restaurant, chef de cuisine Quang Dang uses the creamy white paste ($3.50 for 450 grams) in what he calls “Japanese Mayo, Part 2”, blending it with honey and rice-wine vinegar to serve with salmon cakes.

There's no sushi, sashimi, or B.C. rolls, but the colourful Japanese tapas on offer here are full of clean flavours and a real visual wow factor.

Once upon a time, before culinary writers, bloggers, and Web sites existed, people learned about food firsthand. Travellers returned from exotic lands with strange seeds and spices. Aspiring chefs refined their techniques by watching not Gordon Ramsay but their elders. Home cooks picked up tips from Mom. So in a way, Don Genova, food journalist and educator, is heir to a long tradition that began when one Stone Ager said to another, “You know, if you brush some sap from that tree over there on your T.

First, the kvetch. I don’t think 24 percent alcohol really constitutes a liqueur, but they’re calling it that—SOHO Lychee Flavoured Liqueur ($25.45). This is tasty, though, and better iced than off the bar shelf: there’s an intriguing aroma and definitely a litchi taste. It could be a little less sweet for my palate, but I say that about practically everything. Pernod makes it, in France, and it’s very good in a long drink with orange and lemon juice and a splash of soda.

Not a week goes by without a clutch of new wines appearing, especially at this time of year. Sometimes they’re new vintages of old favourites. Sometimes they’re brand-new names and labels—fledgling wineries that are sending their first offerings out into a crowded and discerning market. Sometimes they’re wines that have been renamed, repackaged, rebranded.

Groans were heard when the Kitsilano Café (2394 West 4th Avenue) shut recently and showed signs of gentrification. Sure enough, the huge inflatable beer bottle that hung from the ceiling is no more. The new twig-brown décor is sleek and modern, the menu has everything from izakaya fare and brown-rice sushi to congee and “Chinoise” dishes. The place is under new management as Mandala Iki Asian Bistro, with some of the original staff.

Hungry for a meal that’s comforting, quick, and cheap? Try a restorative bowl of assorted meats, rice noodles, and deeply flavourful beef broth at one of Vancouver's many Vietnamese restaurants.