Opening on Feb 2, one of Vancouver’s popular ramen shops Zubu makes its mark downtown on Hornby Street. The new restaurant is spacious and I have learned that it has 3 exclusive menu items that are not available at other Zubu locations. I was invited to a media preview and let me tell you more.
Food
First of all, drinks. Their cocktail menu is quite unique, using Asian spirits as well as Asian flavours. We tried the Yuzu Cream and Suutsu Fashion and they were both delicious. Suutsu Fashion is their take on Old Fashioned, smokey and citrusy. Yuzu Cream was creamy and refreshing – and all flavours that I enjoy.
In Vancouver, there’s no shortage of ramen restaurants. Two of my favourite places are Marutama (for its creamy chicken broth) and Ramen Danbo (for its tasty ramen at a surprisingly reasonable price). While the focus is often on the noodles (especially house made fresh noodles) and chasu, the ramen egg (Ajitsuke Tamago 味付け玉子) is equally important in a bowl of ramen. The marinated egg has this jammy, custard-like yolk that should go on everything. I can’t believe it took a pandemic for me to discover the home-made version. And it’s sooo easy to make, too. Most recipes online call for Japanese sake but we made it with Chinese cooking wine and I thought it worked very well.
The wait is over. One of the highly anticipated restaurants to open in Vancouver – Afuri ramen + dumpling – has officially opened its doors. The Afuri brand was established in 2001. This is the fourth ramen + dumpling location outside of Japan, first in Canada. Last year we went to Portland and checked out the ramen + izakaya and I was quite excited about the arrival of ramen + dumpling here in Vancouver. Technically the restaurant is in Richmond. It’s where Dazzling Cafe used to be (remember Dazzling Cafe?). I was invited to its media night and previewed some of its menu items.
Afuri ramen + dumpling uses a kiosk system. Meaning, you go up to one of the three kiosks at the restaurant, place your order, grab a number then head back to your table. At the media preview, to my surprise food arrived very quickly so I don’t think it would be a long wait at the table for your food.
Food
Afuri’s signature broth is chicken based. We saw this giant stock pot (apparently there’s only 3 of these pots in Vancouver and here’s one) that holds enough broth to serve 450-500 bowls of ramen. It takes 300lbs of chicken (meat and bones), 3 types of dried fish, konbu seaweed, and fresh vegetables, on a simmer at 90 degrees for 3 hours. They never bring this broth to a boil, to ensure a clear broth in your bowl. It also helps skimming the fat easier. They then add yuzu, a small citrus fruit native to Asia, to give this broth a refreshing taste.
As for noodles, they make them fresh, in house, daily. If you visit them at lunch, you will likely see the machines going, mixing and rolling the dough and cutting the dough into noodles. Will they run out? I was told they would make enough servings everyday and if need be, they can jump in and make some more to meet the demand.
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