Vancouver food critic Mia Stainsby, listed Gung Haggis Fat Choy in her Cover story article for today's Vancouver Sun's "Queue" Arts & Entertainment summary.
In an article titled Best new restaurants 2004: Rising culinary stars showcase Vancouver's unique blend of multicultural cuisines, Mia writes:
"Food is like edible culture. Take a look at the best restaurants that opened this year. They tell us we're no longer a city of immigrants with a disconnect between mainstream and ethnic populations.
"Vancouver restaurants today, like the city itself, are more a melting pot than a mosaic of many cultures. International cuisines have mixed and merged into a seamless whole, and like the stitching on a baseball, there's no beginning or end to it. What's been happening is quite amazing and adds cosmopolitan flair to the city.
"Ethnic restaurants are not only chameleons in the mainstream, they're now at the forefront of ideas and trends, blurring the lines forever, particularly Asian ones... So-called western-style menus are woven through and through with Asian notes and riffs. Blended cuisines are often referred to as 'fusion,' but it's gone beyond self-conscious borrowings from ethnic cuisines. It's a cuisine of its own - Vancouver cuisine."
Stainsby goes on to write: "And look at the success of the annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy celebrations, the food-centred fusion of Chinese New Year and Robbie Burns Day. Haggis wun tun symbolizes this eccentric culinary union. Only in Vancouver. The main event will be dinner at Floata restaurant on January 30 and 700 party-goers are expected. (See www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com)"
Stainsby mentions us after introducing Shiru Bay / Chopstick Cafe's natto ice cream (a sticky mix of fermented soy beans and ice cream), and Zakkushi Chacoal Grill's ome bushi sour cocktail (Japanese vodka, soda and crushed sour plum.)
Wow - we are in great company, and we are not even a resturant! We even got mentioned before Clove restaurant's butter chicken and kafta balls, Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine, Also Lounge and Chambar.
see Mia Stainsby's December 21, 2004 article about Gung Haggis Fat Choy titled Have a taste of 2004.
