Hanai brings flavours of Hawaii to Vancouver

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Hanai

Where: 1590 Commercial Drive, Vancouver

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When: Dinner, Thursday to Monday

Info and reservations:  hanaivancouver.com, 604-251-6932.

Seems to me, words are eyes into cultures. Consider aloha — hello or goodbye in Hawaiian. But it also means love, affection, peace, mercy — all the good stuff of being human and conveyed when people meet and part.

Another Hawaiian word, hanai, has depth, too. It means to adopt and nourish, all in one. And that’s the intent at Hanai Hawaiian restaurant in East Vancouver.

“Back home, it’s not uncommon to have many hanai-ed family members as you become close to those who live around you,” says Tess Bevernage, chef and one of the owners. “You take care of one another. A lot of these relationships are built around food and it felt like a natural name for what we wanted to create.”

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Bevernage and partner Thomas Robillard were born and raised, have cooked and eaten in Hawaii, so they’re not just about Hawaiian food, they bring a real hit of that aloha spirit. The other owners are Miki Ellis and Stephen Whiteside — more treasures in the neighbourhood — who also run Dachi and Elephant and operated Ugly Dumpling, predecessor to Hanai.

Hawaiian food is a kind of hanai, too, a blended cuisine of the immigrants who converged to work on plantations — Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Puerto Rican, and Portuguese — all built upon a Polynesian foundation of foods the native Hawaiians had introduced, such as taro, coconuts, sugarcane, sweet potatoes and yam — the canoe plants — as well as pigs and chickens.

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At Hanai, you might encounter the Hawaiian pop hits — for instance, they had Spam musubi for takeout in the summer and perhaps someday, poi. But really, it’s Bevernage food.

“We’re inspired by who we are as people,” says Bevernage. “My parents were French. I have a Thai co-chef. We tied that into Hawaii and the cultures there. It allows us to have a lot of freedom with the food. It’s our own version, our interpretation of our upbringing with produce from B.C.”

To dine there, you could opt for the Ohana Menu, a family style tasting menu for $60 per person. Dishes depend on what’s available from farmers. 

“They’ll bring me things to play with and I dive into the beautiful produce B.C. has to offer,” says Bevernage.

Some of the dishes were from the à la carte menu, some were not. All were resonant with flavour with tons of umami.

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“Our Ohana Menu experience began with peanuts in the shell, boiled with star anise, salt and ginger, a Hawaiian inheritance from Chinese immigrants.

“It’s something we grew up eating a lot,” says Bevernage. “You got them in convenience stores and gas stations by the bagful. It’s a common snack.”

Our server warned us to be careful about the squirts of water as you peeled. Honestly, I’m more into roasted peanuts.

Next, another Hawaiian staple — Beach Pickles or snacks you might have in Hawaii with poke and rice or with drinks. In this case, a plate of Japanese-y pickles of daikon, carrots, cucumber and celery and smaller bowls with smoked dried squid and dried baby anchovies. 

“Tegu (dried squid) is Thomas’s favourite,” says Bevernage. “It’s covered in gochujang, honey, and sesame.”

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The anchovies are candied with honey, soy, and sesame oil.

Shoyu beef, an ode to the Hawaiian pipikaula or rope beef, made from a flank cut, was first created by Hawaiian cowboys from Mexico and some call it Hawaiian beef jerky. This one was grilled outdoors and served with a fish sauce dressing with herbs and garlic and on the side, a radicchio and apple salad.

Grilled eggplant had a Thai influence, with fish sauce, fried garlic, bird’s eye chili and mint. 

The star of the evening was a beautiful frenched, exquisitely moist Fraser Valley pork chop with a fermented black bean butter sauce. It came with black and white rice with furikake, that mix of crushed ori, sesame seeds, sugar and salt. 

Kulolo, a cake made with grated taro, coconut milk and brown sugar is a steamed dessert. I liked the slightly chewy texture, like mochi. It was served with fiore de latte ice cream and shoyu caramel.

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Wine director Anna Sutela, is all about natural and biodynamic wines.

“My main goal is to make sure it’s fun,” she says, meaning an ever-changing list with interesting stories.

She served an Austrian Gruner-Veltliner white wine with the pipikaula beef dish with a wink — it matched the radicchio and apple salad that came with the beef — because it had a cow logo on the wine bottle. The winery raises Angus cattle, which explains the logo.

“It goes lovely with Hawaiian flavours with soy and ginger and anything high acid. The citrus notes dance and play with the flavours,” she says.

The cocktail list is short and fun. The Kalua Old Fashioned uses a pork-fat wash to add savoury notes to a 15-year-old rum. Slushy drinks usually aren’t my thing, but I loved the POG, a vodka-based cocktail with the classic Hawaiian trio of passion fruit, orange and guava juices. The substantial sake menu — nearly 20 bottles, several available by the glass — is a nod to the Japanese influence on Hawaiian culture and cuisine.

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Bevernage might be in the kitchen but in the front of house, Sutela and general manager Robin Corbett is all about that aloha culture. Loved talking and laughing with them both.

SIDE DISHES: Cornucopia events aplenty

Whistler’s annual celebration of food and drink returns for its 26th year with events running Nov. 4-6, 10-20 and 25-27.

Tickets are now on sale for special dinners, drink events, culinary demonstrations, food and drink seminars. Signature events include the CRUSH Grand Tasting with small bites and over 300 wines to taste.

Or how about the Silent Disco — listen to DJs play through headphones, dance, mix it up with cocktails, beers, spirits and wine, or learn a few tips from the mixologists and sommeliers.

The new celeb in town, Wild Blue, with chefs Alex Chen and Derek Bendig, makes its Cornucopia debut, teaming with Vanessa Vineyards and Meyer Family Vineyards for two winemakers dinners; or how about a murder mystery dinner at Bearfoot Bistro?  No? Something more edgy like the Silence of the Lambruscos?

Check out the full lineup of events at whistlercornucopia.com. 

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