As Megan Morman is my roomie and she is doing a piece about gossip, I feel justified in giving y'all a larger than life (read quasi-fictional) peek at the behind-the-scenes life at the festival. Luckily the performers that have arrived so far are good Eaters and so Todd took us to one of his favourite little gems called Viphalay, a Laos and Thai restaurant in the corner of a tiny unassuming strip mall. Vancouver has been all abuzz about the opening of a Thai restaurant on West 4th called Maenam, but I had a better meal here at this lovely little family-run business. Todd says he's never had a bad dish at Viphalay, and he's a good person to ask because he's probably eaten every dish on the menu.The table shared an appetizer platter. I loved that the appies were crisp, 2-bite-sized morsels and not monsterous pieces dripping with oil. The prawns in a sticky red-wine sauce stood out. It had an earthiness to it that helped balance out some of the sweetness that can tend to get cloying for my tastes. The same was true of the curries as well--the potatoes and roasted peanuts tended to ground the dishes nicely. Todd ate almost all the platter, but we didn't say anything because he's the director, so one tends to look the other way in these circumstances. We also shared a delicately balanced green curry, a crisp fresh papaya salad and a richly nuanced Massamun curry with hints of cinnamon. Naufus said the latter dish reminded him of food in Guatamala. Again, Todd tended to take more than his fair share of coconut rice, but he has a go go gadget boarderhouse reach that tends to make food disappear faster than you can say Portage La Prairie Popsicles.
Naufus had the dish with the most interesting description. Hell's Beef or Nua Na Lok was described as "Firey strips of marbled beef marinated in our own homemade roasted garlic and chili hot sauce and fire-roasted in Hell's oven."* Only in Alberta you say. Pity. I had a bite of hell's beef and we agreed it was a bit dry and hell was not as hot as we'd imagined. It did have a nice slow burn though. TL Cowan had a boat full of spicy seafood soup (Tom Yum Gai), which she was very pleased with and vowed to come back and have again the next day to clear out her cold. Todd wanted to have the bananas fried in spring roll wrappers, but we all politely escorted him out of the building before he tried to order flaming ouzo for the entire table. Naufus headed to the Wee Book Inn for magazines for his "collage project" and Megan and I gossiped and philosophized into the wee hours.
*Hell's Beef could be a new chapter in Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, or look for it in a performance art piece coming to funeral chapel-turned arts space near you.
