VANCOUVER: Sister’s choice

Everyone thought my younger sister was mute when she was little. We finally figured out she never talked because I would talk FOR her. Like if someone asked her how old she was, I’d blurt out, “SHE’S THREE!”

She got over it by age six or so. Anyway, my little sister is quite the izakaya fan so she wanted to try Shiru-Bay Chopstick Cafe in Yaletown. I agreed since well, I delayed her developmental skills.

Popular with Japan’s after-work crowd, izakaya basically serves small plates of food as well as drinks. Like Spanish tapas but different.

Overwhelmed by all the amazing sounding items at Shiru-Bay, we copped out and ordered the 10-course tasting menu for $35 Can. They served a combination of their most popular dishes and the day’s specials. It turned out to be a helluva deal.

We found the service quite friendly. The waitress helped us navigate the substantial sake menu. And the chefs themselves brought some plates straight from the kitchen to our table.

We started with a tuna tartare topped with avocado and caviar, and Dungeness crab avocado salad with mango and cherry tomato pieces that came with garlic toast. That was followed by a simple yellowtail and sockeye salmon sashimi that just melted in your mouth.

At this point, this is just an excuse to post pictures of gorgeous food that really shows off the Japanese art of presentation and the fresh seafood only Vancouver can offer.

A cured mackerel was seared at our table and then served two ways: sliced on a bed of pickled ginger and also in a red pepper, red onion salad with sesame oil dressing.

This was by far my favourite. Most of the time, mackerel is too salty and fishy, but you could actually taste the mackerel and not just salt.

A play on traditional tempura, the pork tenderloin tempura came with a nice daikon and watercress salad with Japanese plum vinaigrette.

Then came the world’s biggest, meatiest mussels in ginger miso soup. I didn’t post the close-up photo because the fatness of the mussel would be too alarming.

Two tiger prawn dishes made me miss living on the West Coast. The Ebi-Chili-Mayo is Shiru-Bay’s famous dish. The battered and deep fried prawns in a chili-mayo sauce, and topped with wonton chips and almond slices, is a party of textures. The special tiger prawns with mushrooms in butter sauce was subtle but yummy.

The last show-off was the modern take on sushi, served on mini beds of rice, instead of rolled in seaweed. Our platter came with:

• dragonball sushi: prawns and avocado with salmon caviar and tobiko
• tuna tataki: seared albacore tuna with shiitake mushroom duxelle and avocado oil drizzle
• musashi sushi: Dungeness crab with mango coulis, topped with tobiko.

For dessert, we had sorbet made with yuzu, a Japanese citrus fruit.

The room is minimal but not cold. If you miss out on a table, there’s ample room at the stainless steel bar where you can watch the 23-year-old (!) head chef do his thing.

There’s a choice of three tasting menus, but nothing on the regular menu is more than $10.

Great place. Thank god my sister found her voice. ;-)

Shiru-Bay Chopstick Cafe, 1193 Hamilton St., Vancouver, B.C., (604) 408-9315. Open daily 5:30 pm - midnight. Sunday til 11:30 p.m. Extensive menu online.