RESTAURANT REVIEW
T
ucked into an unpretentious room near Oak
and Broadway lies Salmon n’ Bannock, Vancouver’s only First Nations restaurant. With a
focus on fresh, regional cuisine with a modern twist,
its name reflects two traditional west coast staples:
wild salmon and homemade bannock. In 2009, while
visiting a friend in Kelowna, Inez Cook stumbled
upon a Westbank cafe called Kekuli that served First
Nations cuisine. Smitten with the house-made bannock, she began to hatch an idea. She and her colleague Remi Caudron decided that the 2010 Olympics
was the perfect time to open a First Nations-focused
restaurant in Vancouver.
Highlighting wild game meats such as venison
and bison, and fresh-caught, seasonal seafood like
halibut and oolichans, the core ingredients are traditional. Fresh-baked bannock is always on the menu.
Originally made from corn and nut meal as well as
flour made from ground plant bulbs, bannock is often
cooked over a fire. “There are many different kinds
of bannock,” Caudron explains. “Some regional,
some specific to a certain family. Sometimes bannock is made into a big loaf, baked, and sometimes
animal fat is even added into the dough.” The complimentary bannock at Salmon n’ Bannock is slightly
sweet and doughy, with a hint of smoke; mildly salty
and deliciously chewy. Also on the menu is wine from
the Nk’Mip Cellars, an Okanagan winery that is also
owned and staffed by First Nations people.
Game Sampler with air-dried elk,
smoked bison, and boar salami with
bannock crackers, sage blueberry
preserve, and ce dar jelly.
(Opposite) Smoked salmon fillet on a
bannock bun with house pickles and
lemon-dill mayo accompanied by a
garden salad with blackberries.
The flavours here are clean and simple; the food
speaks for itself. A creamy corn soup was garnished
with fresh dill and studded with subtly sweet kernels
of Iroquois white corn, an heirloom variety that dates
back over a thousand years. The Quebec-sourced
venison, sliced thin and seared, had a moist pink interior, and tasted faintly of grass and wood smoke. The
halibut came expertly grilled, lightly charred on the outside, flaky and flavourful on the inside, and accompanied by a tangerine smear of sweet potato puree, with
steamed carrots and green beans. A peppery Nk’Mip
Pinot Noir, with its lingering berry finish, was the perfect complement. Dessert was wild rice pudding, with
organic black cherries, blueberries, and blackberries.
Under the caramelized crust, velvety cream dotted
with chewy bits of wild rice, and at the very bottom, a
rich pool of tart magenta berries.
Caudron sums up the philosophy behind Salmon
n’ Bannock’s careful choice of ingredients: “Food is
definitely part of traditional activities depending on the
seasons. In the western world, we just need to go back
a couple of generations to remember that we did the
same. It’s globalization that makes us eat strawberries
from Chile in the middle of a Canadian winter. We have
forgotten to live with the cycles of nature. Our grandparents and great grandparents had that knowledge.” At
Salmon n’ Bannock, these cycles are reflected in their
traditional, season-based approach to the pure flavours
of nature, flavours that shine through every dish.