Mæst Food is Celebrating Eight Years with a Special Summer Solstice Dinner, June 22nd

It’s been eight years since Chef Tomoko Tahara began Mæst Food. Combined with the advent of “official” Summer, that’s definitely cause for celebration! And one seasonal pop-up that we’ve been looking forward to…

On Sunday, June 22nd, Mæst will be taking over operations at Modus Coffee on Broadway for a Japanese-inspired Summer Solstice Dinner. Designed to keep in tandem with the traditional Japanese calendar, sekki, the menu will honour the season’s transition with dishes designed to showcase midsummer produce and foraged ingredients, while also flexing Chef Tahara’s skills of fermentation. The eight-year-anniversary edition menu will run at $80 including tax (but put aside a little extra for drinks, which will be available to purchase the day-of). Take a look at the five-course menu below:

1. Rhubarb tsukemono, kelp and rose pâte de fruits, sakura oshi sushi, ‘Milk’ bread canape (for Gluten free: flax seed cracker)with XO, pickled rose, strawberry.

2. Jade green braised chayote and tomato clear dashi, pickled elderflower, herb oil.

3. Nama fu (Japanese seitain GF option is mochi instead) stuffed zucchini flower, mugwort tempura. Served with house-made mushroom shoyu ponzu and Nori salt, Rhubarb kosho.

4. Pine-roasted rutabaga with miso glaze, romano beans. Served with Fife bakery sourdough bread or GF house-made rice crackers.

5. Forest floor parfait: Cultured soy milk & currant leaf caramel aerated cream, nettle green cake crumb, seasonal berries, fig leaf dark chocolate.

There are few better (or more delicious) ways to attune yourself to the season than by eating what’s coming out of the ground right now; and, in our opinion, there are few local chefs who express that ideology as instinctually and beautifully as Chef Tahara. If you can afford to spring for a seat at her Summer Solstice Dinner, then you should. (Do that here.) And don’t forget to raise a glass to eight years of her sharing her unique vision with Vancouver, while you’re at it!