ZEN JAPANESE RESTAURANT
With an elemental dependence on ingredients from the sea, it makes sense that purveyors of Japanese cuisine would want to take care of the ocean.
Yet because they face competition in all quarters of the Lower Mainland, the pressure to provide raw fish on the cheap takes precedence for most sushi restaurants. West Vancouver's Zen Japanese Restaurant was the first in Metro Vancouver to go Ocean Wise, in the spring of 2009. From albacore tuna and Dungeness crab to sockeye salmon and sablefish, diners can trust that the marine ingredients used at Zen are sustainably harvested.
Zen Japanese Restaurant, 101-2232 Marine Dr., West Vancouver; 604-925-0667/zensushi.ca.
EARTH TO TABLE
Seasonal Recipes from an Organic Farm Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann
It's not hard to find guidance when it comes to eating in a healthy and earth-friendly way - websites, books, magazines and essays now cover the subject in exhaustive detail. What is less common however, is finding inspiration.
Earth to Table, the 2009 book by Ontario chefs Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann continues to offer exactly that, even three years after publication. It is a story as well as a cookbook. It profiles pioneers in the sustainable food movement, and it lets nature write the menu.
Most of all, it provides the spark and lights up enthusiasm for cooking and eating in a delicious, sustainable way.
List price - $34.99
ETHICAL KITCHEN
At North Vancouver's Ethical Kitchen, it always comes back to the food. Founder Barbara Schellenberg's philosophies on internal and external health infuse the course of each day in the restaurant, market and organic garden. Her background in alternative medicine supports the view that if the food we consume is bad for the environment, then it can't be good for us; but if it's grown with respect, it will nourish our bodies as well as the world around us. Thus, a meal at Ethical Kitchen means bread and pastries, sauces, ketchup and dressings made in house with local ingredients. Meats are grass-fed and biodynamically raised, and milk and dairy products are organic.
Ethical Kitchen, 1600 Mackay Rd., North Vancouver; 604-988-6280/ethicalkitchen.ca.
FOODTREE
Local and sustainable have become such commonplace adjectives that it's hard to know what they mean anymore.
Vancouver-based tech start-up Foodtree Media Inc. is out to change all that. Foodtree's free mobile web app not only shows users where exactly they can buy great food, but using QR codes, it illuminates the sourcing methods of participating restaurants. Vancouver eateries like Bishop's and Nicli Antica Pizzeria include the codes on their menus. Diners can simply use their smartphones to learn, for example, about the farm that raised the hogs for Nicli's wild boar sausage. Other information might include location, production practices, social media contacts and photos, along with where else to buy the products.
Find out more at foodtree.com.
