604 Foodtography

After Angie, Ben, Ed & I had finished eating at La Taqueria and were standing outside, I contemplated something that had been on my mind the whole time. Should I dare ask if they wanted to go for MORE food? “They’re foodies, of course they wouldn’t refuse..they just can’t!” I thought. With Nuba just a stones throw away, I asked if they wanted to go for something famous and well known.  It took very little convincing once I mentioned those key words, “famous” and “well known”. The item in question would be Fried Cauliflower, as mentioned on the list, 101 Things To Taste Before You Die presented by Vancouver Magazine.

Right at the North West corner of Hastings & Cambie, nuba is located underground. Though it would seem to be dark because of it being underground, on this particularly sunny but cold afternoon, the sun spilled in through the windows and gave it a great feel and ambiance.

See the 3rd item on the menu, Najib’s Special? This is is what we were here for, crispy cauliflower. Kind of strange when you think about it, this is what the restaurant is famous for, deep fried cauliflower?  I would like to note that I was originally supposed to come to Nuba a couple weeks before this, but we didn’t make reservations and ended up going to the Revel Room instead.

We had a hard time deciding what to order. Just get the cauliflower and that’s it?  Ed really wanted Hummus, which he loves, as he mentioned multiple times, so we ordered that. I can’t remember who picked it, but we also ordered Lamb Kibbeh. Ed also ordered himself an italian soda, Blue Sky Cola.

Finally, cauliflower! What a change in color from the usual creamy white, to a now dark brown almost burnt color. It also tasted slightly burnt, so we all wondered if this was perhaps fried too long. It was really soft, not what I was expecting for a dish describe as “crispy cauliflower”. It wasn’t bad.. but didn’t live up to the hype that I had heard about and built up for myself.

The Hummus is organic chickpeas blended with garlic, lemon & tahini. The garlic was not overwhelming, which is nice since I had clinic appointments later on. A little lemony, it was delicious and light. Served with pita bread, our server also brought us some hot sauce, seen at bottom right.

Actually, now that I think about it, I probably picked this. I love lamb, and always want to try it out if a restaurant serves it up. The two tiny patties you see below are grilled grain-fed halal lamb patties seasoned with onions, parsley & various spices. Not overly stinky as lamb can be if not cooked right, they were great. Only thing is we had to split each patty in half to share.

Just over $5 each after tax, this was a great way to cap off our little twitter food meet up.

Click to read Angies (she made Hummus after!), Ben, and Ed‘s opinion.