Will travel for food
WILL TRAVEL FOR FOOD
The Dessert Club aka Sam Shem will be collaborating with Mæst Food aka Tomoko Tahara at Grapes and soda in south Granville, Vancouver, BC.
March 13 and 14 th, starting time 5:30 or 8:00 $45 (+5% processing fee through website order) Tickets are here
There will be 2 different Menus that are inspired by using airline cutlery, tableware and trays, as it would be on a airline flight. Both menus will consist of a 6 pcs meal set. There are two options:
Set 1: Sam of the Dessert Club will make an Indian inspired food
Set 2: Tomoko of Mæst food will make a Japanese food
Sam Shem is an artist, pastry chef and founder of The Dessert Club. Sam has spent the last ten years travelling to India and other countries to learn and to teach yoga. During his time in India, he learned how to cook Indian food from many skilled chefs and home cooks. Sam will be serving some of his favourite Indian dishes at this collaborative event. All dishes will be vegetarian or vegan.
Tomoko Tahara is the founder and chef of Mæst food. She is originally from Japan and has worked at some of the best restaurants and cafes in Vancouver and Japan over the last 10 years. Tomoko has been creating vegan pop-up dinners in Vancouver for over four years. Her interest include using local and home grown ingredients to create dishes that reflect seasonality and distilling this in the ingredients inherent flavours. At this time, she will serve you fancy but casual style of farm to table Japanese food. Please see more details.
Beets carpaccio
Beets carpaccio. Sounds like ordinary? Ours is special.
10+ hours roasted charred beets that inspired by a dish that Christian Puglisi was doing at Relae.
He charred the beets with a jasper and roasted long hours, with a few process like carefully cut them like sashimi and with unique seasonings, he called it fish.
Our version is the roasted charred beets with a few processes, will serve them with almond crackers, sorrel aioli, salted plum, grapes, pickled chive flower buds.Using elder flower vinegar is also Puglisi’s idea but the vinegar is house made, also the flower is from wild that I harvested in the summer.
You can try the menu at our event, Maest food presents vegan contemporary dinner series Far East vol.9 “Fruits rules” at Burdock and co(2702 Main street).
14th September, 5:45pm seating / 8:00pm seating. Ticket holders only. (you will be required to show vaccine passport at the door, the gouverment order effective from 13th Sep)
The ticket price is including a 7 course tastings dinner, a glass of wine, cold brew coffee and a dessert. We will have a wine bar for your extra glasses of wine.
Ticket order is here. Limited numbers. We only have a few spots left for each seatings.
Cheese board, green walnut
Finished for a test for one of a menu for vegan contemporary dinner series vol.9 Far East.
We will feature Vancouver vegan’s favourite, plant based cheese shop, Blue Heron’s products.
We call it “board”, cheese samplers are on a pear compote(the cheeses on the pear are ideal, we don’t have actual products yet since we need to serve them fresh).
Pears.When I saw the pears at a farmers market, I bought it right away.
They looked like a treasure that I found in a cardboard, beautiful product.(And actual taste is perfect too)
Green walnuts. I received them from a farm where I took a field trip to, and then preserved in pickling liquid in mid summer.
I’ve tried the taste of nochino before but not pickled green walnuts.
After fermented a few days, the liquid got so black and I was excited how strange they are. Then left it about a month.
When I tried them two weeks ago, it was slightly too bitter and I thought I can’t use it for the event. Then I tried it again this week -happy surprise! It wasn’t bitter. Food science and time made a magic. Wonderful fragrance, unique texture and taste. Great addition for cheese & wine snack.
Shiso. Found them at a farmers markets then made an extract, then jelly. Very unique flavour, in between anise, basils, and mint.
Try them at our event. September 14th at Burdock & co. 7 course tastings dinner with a glass of wine, cold brew coffee & a dessert. The details are here.
Autumn Eggplants
Don’t let feed autumn eggplants to your wife - The same proverb they have it in Japan.
Because it is too good, because it makes human body chill..But I wonder why it says “wife”? How about “husband”?
People think it is feminism issue, or mean grandma buries her daughter in law, but I would take the second reason, as thoughtfully caring for the women’s health.
Anyways - the photo is about one of a menu for our next vegan contemporary dinner event, Far East vol.9 “Fruits rules”.
The eggplant menu is bbq eggplants with clear fig leaf & kelp dashi stock sauce, mint flavoured English pea, yuzu miso.
The dinner event is at Burdock & co on 2702 Main street, Vancouver BC. Only for ticket holders, the ticket is including 7 course tastings menu with 1 glass of wine, cold brew coffee and a dessert.
The wine selection from Burdock & co, the cold brew coffee is from Harken coffee. Tickets & details : www.maestfood.com
Vegan contemporary dinner series Far East vol.9 “Fruits rules”
Mæst Food(@tomokotahara) presents..
#Vegan contemporary dinner series - Far East Vol.9- Fruits rules.
This event is 7 course tastings menu including 1 wine, cold brew coffee with a dessert.
The wine selections from Burdock & co, Cold brew coffee from Harken coffee.
This time, we highlight fruits on each menus with end of summer / early autumnal vegetables.
Tomoko Tahara is a founder/ chef of Mæst food, she is originally from Japan and she have been worked at several good restaurants and cafes in Vancouver and Japan for over 10 years, doing her own pop ups for over four years. She is keen to combinations of local ingredients and flavour balance.
PNW vegan food with a Japanese twist. Focussing on seasonal local farm, foraged ingredients.
$95 (+5% processing fee through website order, message if you would like to make an e-transfer) .
Please note:
Gratuity is not included, please prepare it with you when you attend the event. We also have a wine bar for your extra drinks, we take cash or credit card, debit.
If you can’t drink coffee, please let us know. We will prepare non caffeinated hibiscus tea.
The menu is a tastings menu, which is a collection of several dishes in small portions. Each menu might look small, but you will be full when it’s end of the event.
Seats are very limited -
Following coastal health guidelines - we will maximum 6 per table.
Each table have 2m distances.
September 14th (Tuesday)
Venue : Burdock & co
2702 Main street
Ticket holders only, no walk ins.
2 seatings : 5:45 - 7:15pm / 8:00- 9:30pm
Vegan fillet o tofu
Next our pop up at Harken coffee - 5 & 6 June, 11am-4pm.
Fillet o f*sh was a special treat when I was a kid. I was such an 80’s child.
Inspired by the memory - I started researching how can I make it with vegan.
I saw many people tried to make vegan tonkatsu(fried pork cutlet) sandwich with tofu or tempeh, it was good but I felt missing something.
Then researched, think, tried & reached my method. It is 3 days process. I don’t tell this trick but this one has good texture & flavour.
I was also thinking to improve the brioche-sweet bun recipe that I made it for Harken coffee when I was a head chef.
I finalized the recipe. Good richness & crispy outside, soft inside.
Try the burger at our event - limited numbers as usual, a combo with roasted potato wedges & farm salad.
Pre-order on our market page.
The detail:
Vegan fillet o tofu. House made vegan buns, bredded tofu(air fried), house made tartar sauce (original Japanese mayo, original dill pickles), farm greens, Blue heron cheese(Apricot cashew).
The tofu is three days processed to make juiciness and good texture.
A combo with mini house green salad (ginger dressing) & roasted farm potato wedges.
Weekend vegan bento pop up is back
Mæst (Tomoko Tahara)weekend take away at Harken coffee - next one is country style Inari sushi bento box.
Inari sushi is popular Japanese portable food, normally sushi rice is wrapped with puffed tofu pocket. This one is open faced, and special toppings on the sushi. Lots of garden flowers, vegan kinshi tamago, preserved cherry blossom. Enjoy late spring blossoms.A pair with seasonal vegetable miso soup.
Pre- order basis, order and details from here. Photos are ideal. Actual item will be slightly different since ingredients are seasonal.
Mæst food : sweets pop up
Normally we do pop ups at Harken coffee, once in a while, different concept & at different shops.
Today was “Dorayaki- Japanese pancake” pop up at Iktsuarpok coffee stand.
The coffee stand is run by a couple, Kento and Rika. Kento is talented barista, Rika is at the window to chat with customers.
The cafe is doing only window service, their work ethics & beverages are amazing with their strong concept.
Anyways our pop up.
In north America, pancakes must be warm, but this dorayaki pancakes are good even so when it gets cold.
The pancake sandwich is with bean paste, and normally is non vegan, but we made vegan version.
May do it in the future the dorayaki again, however when next one happens, it will be with different item. Stay tuned.
Cherry blossom cheese?
Tomoko Tahara Weekend takeaway pop up at Harken coffee - 8th and 9th May. Vegan charcuterie board kit.
I made two kinds of floral cheese, one is lightly fermented with flowering currants, another one is cashew sake-kasu & cherry blossom.
The last one wasn’t fermented together with cherry blossom because the flagrant is delicate.I was afraid to loose the flavour so I just tried to put fermented cherry blossom petals on surface. Hopefully you can smell the fragrant.
The cashew sakekasu cheese has unique miso kind of flavour from the sakekasu, good matching with floral flavour from the blsooms. Pre-order and details are here, walk-ins welcome at the Harken coffee, but the numbers are very limited.
Vegan Charcuterie and cheese board.
Next weekend takeaway pop up at Harken coffee is ..Vegan charcuterie and cheese board.
Using lots of wild blossoms and farm vegetables.
House made two vegan nuts cheeses, one is wrapped with cherry blossom petals.
Another one is fermented with flowering currants.
For the vegan meats, celeriac shawarma and sprouted lentil pate.
Two kinds of blossom pickles, maple flower and magnolia flower.
The maple flowers have good sweetness and bright yellow colour, the magnolia is unique gingery flavour in a hakurei turnip cup.
Two kinds of crackers, yuzu & fennel pita chips, translucent crackers.
You can enjoy variety of food items. This can feed for one, but good for sharing with other food, too.
Nice snacks for picnic, or mothers day gift.
Pre-order basis, you can order from here.
Vegan sauces..
Exciting small news.
Mæst food will launch two kinds of sauces tomorrow at Harken coffee.
Japanese inspired Worcestarshire sauce. Rich, deep flavour, you will find umami in the sauce.
Apple mustard sauce. Kind of like in between apple chutney & mustard. Sweet, yet spicy.
They both are perfect with Joy Ridos’s vegan sausage rolls.
Available in store. Ask baristas!
Vegan weekend pop up -country style Inari bento
This weekend’s vegan takeaway pop up is “Inari bento.”
And it is country style. Foraged cherry blossoms and blackberry shoots, fiddle heads - Lots of fresh spring taste from the forest.
About the main item, “Inari” sushi is sushi rice in a puffed tofu pocket.
This version is open faced Inari sushi with foraged, wild vegetable toppings.
The highlights are Salted cherry blossoms, almond pulp miso pickled fiddle head, Espresso miso roasted eggplants.
Every content is made with thoughtful method to balance the each flavour, cured or marinated, etc.
A set with seasonal vegetable miso soup.
Pick up 24 & 25 April at Harken coffee, 338 Powell street.
Pick up time : 11-4pm.Limited numbers. Pre-order from our market site.
More photos and descriptions Tomoko Tahara instagram
Vegan cereals
When I was working at Harken coffee, Tomoko Tahara made a series of flavoured puffed rice cereals.
Since the menu was dine in basis, the cereal was simple, combination of toppings and flavoured milk made the charactor of the cereals.
This time is packaged so it has flavours in the cereals.
There are two kinds. Tamari candied almonds and seeds, brown sugar oats, raisins and cocoa nibs. Nice variety of flavours and texture, and good saltiness from the Tamari.
An another one is marshmallow puffed rice and almonds, seeds, freeze dried blueberries.
Not only for your breakfast, they both can be a dessert with good creamy “m*lk”. & fresh fruits, and nice with vegan ice creams.
Oh wait! Vegan miso “butter” is new item too.
Available for online pre-orders, as well as in store at Harken coffee (338 Powell street)
Vegan shawarma weekend
Shawarma..yes, its shawarma without meat. Our next weekend takeaway pop up at Harken coffee 338 Powell street. 27 & 28 March, 11:30-4:30. Pre-order basis.
Our House made shawarma and pickles(Blueberry flower pickling liquid), romaine, tomato, avocadoes, fluffy elegant pita from Super baba on Main street.
You can order online.
Super slow cooked celeriac is the mock shredded meat.It took two days to process.
Wrap it up with flour dough - mixed some glutamine-rich flavours.
They look like giant meat balls?
Slice, then braise, then some more process.
Nettles
These are for my weekend pop up at Harken coffee.
Farm and forest chirashi Bento box with miso soup.
Nettles are for the mochi in the miso soup.
We boiled, and mashed, then knead into mochi dough.
For more details of bento box, visit Mæst Market.
Nettles are truly a gift from spring. Lots of nutritions.
Spring harvest
Harvested some spring wilds. Butterbur, mustard leaves, miners lettuce, stingy nettles.
Spring is busy, exiting time for harvesting and preserve the edible plants.
So finalized the menu for this weekend’s take aways pop up at Harken coffee.
Important: We have to apologize about that we announced as we will be available for dine-ins, however Harken isn’t able to do 100% dining for food service now & this event is basically take out. Still you can enjoy coffee & food in the room but it will be self service basis.
Walk-in purchase is available but the numbers are limited, highly recommend to make pre-orders.
Anyways back to subject. Harvests. Introducing how to cook butterbur in traditional Japanese way.
This plant has a hole inside of the stem. Some says it can be a straw?
Clean the leaves and extra parts, salt.
After salted, boil whole stems and peel the skin little by little.
Voilà.
Edamame, but..
Edamame, one of my weekend pop up event’s ingredients.
Edamame beans are commonly eaten as a snack with simple method - Just boil with the shell, salted and shelled when people eat.
Also nice garnish for the bright green colour.
We are using it but added extra process - shelled, peeled the thin skin, marinated with herbal green oil.
The details of my pop up this weekend.
Maest food at Harken coffee : Vegan bento pop up 0.2 : Chirashi sushi.
Chirashi sushi is like a poke, this is the quickest answer - it has long history. The Chirashi style sushi have been commonly eaten in Japan since late 1800s, normally fresh fish (sashimi) on sushi rice.
This is vegan and artistically made- no fish at all, but variety of mocked fish and coulourful farm vegetables on the rice.
Ikura, marinated tuna, smoked salmon, kinshi tamago(shredded crape style egg) - all house made with vegetables.
Every content is made with thoughtful method to balance the flavour and texture, cured or marinated, etc.
The chirashi sushi is in a beautiful wooden box, and also with Farm red potato Miso soup.
Available 20th & 21st March at Harken coffee 338 Powell street. Very limited number, highly recommend to pre-order online.
Vegan bento pop up: Chirashi sushi
Maest food at Harken coffee : Vegan bento pop up 0.2 : Chirashi sushi.
Do you know Chirashi sushi? It’s basically like a poke, this is the quickest answer - it has long history. It have been commonly eaten in Japan since late 1800s, normally fresh fish (sashimi) on sushi rice.
This is vegan and artistically made- no fish at all, but variety of mocked fish and coulourful farm vegetables on the rice.
Ikura, marinated tuna, smoked salmon, kinshi tamago(shredded crape style egg) - all house made with vegetables.
Every content is made with thoughtful method to balance the flavour and texture, cured or marinated, etc.
The chirashi sushi is in a beautiful wooden box, and also with Farm red potato Miso soup.
Available 20th & 21st March at Harken coffee 338 Powell street. Very limited number, highly recommend to pre-order online.
Take a glance look for vegan take away lunch box pop up on 6th & 7th March / Kale caesar salad
Our pop up 0.1 : Vegan takeaway lunch box at Harken coffee.
Introducing one of menu items -
Kale caesar salad. Sounds standard again?
What is special about the salad?
The kale is from organic farm, then the dressing is a big key.
It is sort of Japanese & vegan version caesar dressing.
Using Yuzu for the citrus flavour, a few of umami ingredients are also in it.
Toppings are buckwheat bread crumb and almond gremolata, dehydrated chick pea and capers, sliced olives.
The full menu of the lunch box :
Confit carrot, sunflower seed “cheese”, Crushed candied Tamari almonds
Charred broccoli with yuzu salt, shichimi, evo
Marinated, compressed Tempeh steak
Buckwheat Sourdough slice
Preserve sampler : Shiso rosehip jam
Kale caesar salad
$18 before tax
Limited number. Pre-order from Maest market, or just simply walk in to Harken coffee 338 Powell street.
About the process of Rose hip jam
Rose hip jam - it is precious extract from the rose.
The process is a bit extra for other fruits jams - cleaning of course, and blanch, then cook with sugar and citrus or other flavour.
I used Shiso, and Yuzu.
Until this is kind of normal. Straining is the big process for this jam.
I cooked a lot of rosehips with medium high percentage of sugar, and it creates the amount of the jam only 40% amount of fresh ingredients. You can have some from our Mæst food Market website.
