In the Tupian family of languages spoken in South America, the word iwaca’i means water-crying fruit.
Specifically, the term refers to the small, plump berry of the Euterpe oleracea palm tree, indigenous to South America and parts of the West Indies. In the last five years or so, the water-crying fruit has become the subject of heavy-duty marketing efforts in the Western world and most of us will now recognize the berry by the Portuguese translation of its name, acai.
The acai berry (pronounced ah-sah-ee, as in “I breathed acai of relief when I saw the phonetic spelling of this berry’s troublesome name”) is prized for its reported health benefits, including its heavy antioxidant content.
We have seen other fruits make a similarly meteoric rise in popular culture on the basis of their antioxidant properties; it seems like just yesterday that the common blueberry was being lauded as a super food and I recall that the pomegranate, with its pretty, fun-to-pop crimson seeds was the celebrity cure-all a few years back.
Does anyone remember the humble cranberry? It feels incongruous to me that the vodka industry should enjoy such success by co-opting these healthful fruits for its own infusion designs and I fear it is just a matter of time before kale finds its way into the cocktail scene.
Like anyone, I try to make healthy choices when it comes to my diet but I have to acknowledge that I am still largely a hedonistic eater; if something really doesn’t taste good, I am likely to avoid it irrespective of its nutritional benefits.
Happily, I was recently presented with concrete evidence that acai can be delicious. In fact, The Anchor Eatery in West Vancouver seems to take pride in pioneering new culinary ground for the magical berry with a house specialty of acai bowls, ingenious and indisputably tasty light meals that put the crying fruit in the spotlight.
I visited The Anchor Eatery one recent Saturday morning with my wife DJ and our kids Blondie and The Boy in tow. I confess that I was skeptical that a restaurant specializing in progressive, healthy meals was going to be a big hit with children, but by the end of our meal my misgivings were unconditionally dismissed.
Anchor’s menu is eclectic, with a display case of sandwiches and wraps, an offering of soups and salads, and a prominent feature board of smoothies and acai bowls containing a broad range of specialty ingredients from chia seeds to goji berries.
We ordered a cross-section of dishes, beginning with the Nalu acai bowl, a colourful, dramatic assemblage of purplish acai blend, housemade granola, sliced strawberries, banana, bee pollen and honey. The acai blend, which features in all of the acai bowls, is a refreshingly tart mix of frozen acai berries, raspberries, blueberries, banana and a splash of coconut water, all pureed in a blender.
The resulting sherbet-like pulp is exceedingly tasty and provides an ideal platform for the bowl’s other components, especially Anchor’s crunchy granola, another winning creation that boasts a healthy dose of toasty sunflower seeds in every bite. All of us were thoroughly taken with the acai bowl but, recognizing that we were in public, politely avoided fighting it out for the last spoon of chilly goodness.
The kids opted for smoothies, The Boy taking a safe route with a traditional banana and strawberry blend, while Blondie tested her taste buds with the more adventurous Funky Monkey, made with banana, cacao powder, almond butter, milk and dates.
The latter was a complex treat, the dates and almond butter conspiring to create a pleasing viscosity, while the cacao made the drink appealing to a young palate. All smoothies can be made with almond milk in place of dairy milk and can be enhanced with a long list of add-ons including whey, hemp, maca powder, flax, mint, various fruits, and a six mushroom blend.
We all shared a yogurt parfait made of blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and a crunchy topping of Anchor’s yummy granola, before tucking into the only hot item we sampled, a dense and satisfying Mexican breakfast wrap, a flour tortilla jammed full of garlicky rice, black beans and melted cheese.
The Anchor Eatery took over a portion of the space once occupied by the popular Bean Around the World coffee shop. The two businesses now provide direct interior access to each other’s rooms, and Anchor patrons are free to pop next door for a coffee to bring back and consume with a healthy meal.
Our weekend breakfast for four was $34.60 ($40 if you include the accompanying Bean Around the World Americanos.)
The Anchor Eatery is located at 1520 Marine Dr. anchoreatery.com
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001. Contact: [email protected].
