Travel Tips & Adventures

Every once in a while, you might have the opportunity to savor a really fine, skillfully prepared, exquisitely tasteful meal. I had that incredible experience at a hotel restaurant named Zin in Vancouver, British Columbia.With an advertised “$2 Bites” and some coupons handed to us for wine sampling, we ventured into Zin, not knowing what we’d discover. What we encountered was incredible.

The aforementioned $2 bite, in our case a very inventive corndog, was served with a green peppercorn mayo and totally unlike the prototype. It was not greasy or gooey, but flavorful and crunchy on the outside.

To make sure I had my veggies, I ordered a salad. This enormous plate of fresh greens had some components I have never seen, let alone tried, before. Since I ate everything before I could ask, I never did find out what one of the lettuce leaves was. The dressing was a citrus concoction, not too sweet, but delightful.

My Angus rib eye was served with a gorgeous array of thin, tender green beans, yellow beets, baby carrots, poached rhubarb – amazing! – no bitter taste, some exotic mushrooms and caramelized onions covering the steak. Every forkful was a rhapsody of flavor.

A scallop dinner with crispy pork belly was luscious and served with equally fresh and colorful pairings.

To top off the feast, we ended with a dish of three sorbet flavors. Each sorbet was a brilliant color – red-purple for raspberry, yellow with a lemony-sweet taste, and a pink strawberry scoop. Garnished with a gooseberry, the three-sorbet dessert was the finale of a meal I can only describe as superb.

Chef Karen Gin is the maestro of this sophisticated establishment. She employs fresh ingredients, mostly locally sourced, and creates taste- and eye-appealing menus.

Long may Zin prosper! I highly recommend a visit while in Vancouver.

BE AWARE — We charged our bill at Zin to our hotel room since Zin is in the Pacific Palisades Hotel where we were staying. Although we only ate one meal there, meals on two consecutive days were on our hotel bill. We don’t know how the second charge came to be on our bill, but it points out the need to be alert. Check your bill!

Note: The hotel did remove the second erroneous charge when we brought it to their attention.

http://www.zin-restaurant.com/

Tomorrow…Come back to see a beaver’s favorite museum.

Tags: Food, Gourmet, Restaurant, Travel, Vancouver

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Canada, Food, Restaurant, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.