This series maps out our editor’s picks for Vancouver’s best and most legendary comfort foods. We encourage readers to steer us towards their favourites in the comments or by using the hashtag #ScoutYVR on social media.
The hearty fricassée at Chambar is a dish I regularly climb into like a onesie pair of pyjamas. It’s been on the menu at the Belgian-Moroccan restaurant since forever, I assume because it’s so damn satisfying. There’s just so much going on beneath the two fried eggs, watercress and apple matchsticks pictured above, including thick chunks of slow braised short rib meat that gives way on the tooth, impactful little balsamic vinegar-licked cipollini onions that squish flavour, little globs of applewood smoked cheddar cheese and enough chopped up pieces of potato to round the whole thing out. The wintry braising liquid at the bottom of the skillet ties everything together like a chalked-up complex equation, and makes for a good scarpetta situation if you have the patience and presence of mind to save your side of bread to the very end.