I got a laugh from the playful Sashimi Menu at Oysi Oysi on Alberni.

One of Kit’s best kept secrets is the charming Epicurean Caffe, featuring French cafe food. For brunch we enjoyed the decadent and delicious thin-crust, 2 egg and prosciutto Bonjourno pizza, as well as some delicious sunny side up fried eggs. With a cute little patio and great coffee, this makes for a charming brunch destination.

Enjoyed by my mother at Mexico City restaurant el Bajío, this dish is called Chiles en Nogada. Nogal means walnut tree, and the dish is made from a poblano chili filled with picadillo, a ground meat and spice mixture, and served with a walnut-based cream sauce and finished with pomegranate seeds. All together it is white red and green, the colors of the Mexican flag!! Viva Mexico!

I love the little burgers at Nimby Burger. Even the “Doublay” is cute enough to hug. And for a hungover day at Kit’s beach, you can’t do better. The fries are in large quantity and good enough. The shakes are lacking in my opinion, they are not creamy enough and the chocolate and strawberry flavors are too weak. For that calorie count, it should be a sensual experience. But the burger makes up for it, and don’t forget to ask for ketchup!

At the Powell Street festival there were many fun things to buy, such as tea and sake cups, kimonos, hand-made greeting cards and lots of baby stuff. But what stood out for me were the playful sushi earrings and candles.

I think the earrings are super-cute and affordable, although it took some convincing to get Sunny to wear them. You can see more at the shop on etsy. The candles were also reasonably priced and would make a fun place settings for a sushi dinner.

The Powell Street Festival celebrates Japanese culture and is the only time that I willingly hang out in Oppenheimer park. This year the weather was hot and sunny, the crowd was big and the merchandise was fun. There was dancing, drumming, and of course, eating! Unfortunately the lines for the food were long and you might have waited 40 minutes for crowd favorites “Osaka balls” or grilled salmon, but the food looked (almost) worth it. In my case, I took photos and thought hungry thoughts before making a hasty retreat to air conditioning.

Big Lou’s Butcher Shop at 269 Powell Street has a great selection of well-priced meat. This seasoned pork chop was only $4.50 for two. The Pemberton cow costs more, but you will never regret it. I inquired about rabbit and was told that maybe by Christmas. The sandwich menu is fantastic, and across the street from Sunrise, you can’t go wrong.

These are some new dishes for me at Miku!

The sashimi salad is amazing value and quite huge, packed with very small pieces of salmon and tuna. This is not suitable for someone who doesn’t like one or the other (true story). The gyu tataki was gorgeous to look at and the meat was excellent, one row with black sesame sauce  and one with a very tart ponzu with yuzu kosho.

I love Miku!

Joe Yu sent in these photos of his favorite street food in Taipei, the oyster omelet. Based on the photos, I’m sold.

After hearing mixed reviews of Hapa Umi, and as a die-hard izakaya fan, I was nervous on my first visit. It was immediately obvious that umi concept is to take the hapa we know and elevate it to the level of fine dining. That means no noisy yelling in Japanese, a fancier, quieter room (and location) and extremely attentive service. Hapa Umi sports a nice patio, comfy booths, and a big open kitchen.

The menu is short and the the point, and backs away from an izakaya in that it offers entree style dishes, although these too can be (and should be!) shared. There was no “fresh sheet,” but they had a seasonal spot prawn menu and some sashimi specials. The prices are higher than its sibling restaurants and more care is taken with the food.

The cocktail list is interesting, and we tried a margarita with sake, and plum wine with rum. Neither of these drinks were great successes for us, but lets be honest, when was the last time you had a really good cocktail at an izakaya?

Where Hapa Umi really shines is with an excellent sake menu that makes an effort to describe production methods and types. This is not your cheap hot sake territory; bring your Visa card.

We had grilled spot prawns off the seasonal menu and I loved them. Grilled perfectly and cut right in half, exposing the meat and brains for easy consumption, this is how spot prawns should be featured (take note Ensemble). Beef tataki was pretty and nice, with some reduced drops adding acid.

Halibut ceviche was beautiful, but I didn’t love it. The halibut was a bit tough, and the mix of raw onion and cherry tomatoes was confusing for “ceviche.” What really threw me in this dish was a strong shiso flavor, which I have discovered I do not enjoy, purely a personal preference.

Flown in that day, we had baby hamachi, a first for me, and very memorable. I could not help but compare this favorably to the higher-priced hamachi dish I hated at Ensemble.

The dynamite roll was delicious, with tempura white prawn and a bean, and a salmon roll was all the things it should be, and heavy on the salmon. We did not try any of the bigger, meaty entrees, but I did see sablefish go by our table and it looked excellent.

For desert, a very light but sensual cheesecake with sugar-encrusted shiso leaf, and a layered green tea and chocolate cake was beautiful and one of the more satisfying deserts I have had in some time.

Although I will continue to frequent my favorite izakayas around the city (preferring the cheap and cheerful approach), Hapa Umi is somewhere I would take a business colleague or out of town family. For quieter, more refined dinners, Hapa Umi offers delicious seafood in an almost-izakaya style.