The GOODS from Bambudda

Vancouver, BC | Bambudda owner Ray Loy and Executive Chef Scott Korzack are welcoming Chinese New Year with a special, à la carte menu embodying the restaurant’s commitment to Cantonese cuisine prepared with a Western flair. The carefully curated food and cocktail list features specialties that harken back to Loy’s Cantonese heritage.

My family moved to Vancouver when I was a year old,” says Loy. “Growing up in Strathcona and Chinatown, Chinese New Year in my family became a blending of Chinese and Western cultures. The concept behind Bambudda was to share that unique culinary fusion with our guests.”

Duck, a traditional New Year’s offering, features prominently on the menu in both the steamed Duck Buns and the Tea Duck, served with a black-tea jus, red dates and holiday-appropriate chrysanthemum greens. In a playful nod to Chinatowns across the country, the fried Duck Gizzard is accompanied by packets of Wing’s Plum Sauce. Although Bambudda makes its own plum sauce in-house, Loy and Korzack wanted to pay tribute to the newer traditions embraced by Canada’s Chinese communities.

The Lettuce Wraps, stuffed with baked and fried Chinese eggplant, point to the Chinese word for “fortune,” which is also the word for “lettuce.”

And finally, the Lucky Coy, a frozen ginger parfait dessert in the shape of a fish, is a sweet way to highlight the custom of ending a Chinese New Year banquet with a whole fish — the head and tail symbolizing a good beginning and end to the year.

For his part, bar manager Robert “Buck” Friend has been tasked with creating three cocktails to complement the special menu: the rum-based Last Dynasty, the fiery Dragon’s Descendant and the Red Packet, made with cassia bark-infused tequila.

DETAILS

99 Powell Street | Vancouver, BC | V6A1E9
Telephone: 604 428 0301
Web: www.bambudda.ca | Twitter | Facebook
Hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 5:30pm until late (closed Monday)

GALLERY

The People

Owner & GM – Ray Loy
Chef – Scott Korzack
Bar Manager – “Buck” Friend

About Bambudda

Bambudda has been a dream of mine ever since early adulthood. I grew up in Strathcona in the 70’s (five blocks from Bambudda), and I’m still living in the same neighborhood. Chinatown and Gastown were a big part of my childhood. I still remember $1.49 Tuesdays at Woodward’s, the original Save On Meats, and Golden Harvest Chinese Theatre at Main & Hastings, where my Mom used to take me for movies.

The cuisine at Bambudda combines elements of the food I grew up eating (either Mom’s cooking or restaurants in 1970’s-1980’s Chinatown) with modern French influences and interpretations in a contemporary setting. Bambudda has a private room for up to 20 people, a corner patio and bar seating with sliding doors that open up in the summer. The menu includes family-style share plates paired with an innovative, Asian-inspired cocktail list.

Chef Scott Korzack uses local, seasonal, sustainable and msg free ingredients to create unique and imaginative dishes. Our menu and cocktail list brings freshness and innovation to you every season of the year. – Ray Loy, Owner/GM

PRESS

Vancouver Sun | The Georgia Straight