Orange Club Cafe, old and new

From the lunch menu, I chose the pan-seared snapper with leeks, carrots and red pepper in coconut clam broth.

Fumiyo and Yoko went with the chicken and prawn with fruit curry sauce and rice, and were glad they did.



From the Tapas menu, chicken colombo with spicy red curry marinade. Is Peter Faulk in the kitchen? Fumiyo's penguins appear hungry.


Pork tenderloin with brandied apples in cream sauce. Apples and pork go together like white and black keys on a piano.




Eggplant cheese and tomato napoleon. Hold the Waterloo


The local Orange Club Cafe has been a favourite of Fumiyo and her friends for years, and a place I've never had a bad meal at. Unfortunately most of the meals have been lunches, when even my notoriously small appetite shrinks precipitously. Walking by the restaurant last week, I noticed they'd added a Tapas menu for dinner so we checked it out. The Napoleon was battle winning, if not emperor worthy. The goat cheese was just creamy enough to flow into the tomato and eggplant tower soothingly. Unfortunatley, by the time the pork arrived, I could only dream of eating. When I finally summoned an appetite for it the following day, it reminded me of a pork-golden mushroom soup-apple concoction that has been regular fare at our house for decades. There may have been brandy in the apples somewhere but it escaped me. Fumiyo is always happy to eat curry.

There were a number of items on the tapas menu I'd like to try. It was a very hot evening when we went for dinner, and pork is not a good idea in hot weather, unless it's a very air conditioned restaurant. On the night we were there, it wasn't. Next time I'll try the scallops and prawns.

Fumiyo had planned to eat lunch with her friend Yoko so I went along, not realizing that the lunch menu did not include tapas. Still it looked appettising. I was tempted by the fruit curry. A great idea. Some of the first and best curry's I've eaten were full of apples, raisins and other fruit. The meal that Fumiyo and Yoko enjoyed had a few pieces of fruit on the side, not part of the curry at all. The one prawn Fumiyo shared with me reminded me fondly of the exquisite prawns I had had Joe Fortes Seafood House, reviewed in April. My snapper smelled fantastic as it arrived on the table. Mostly the coconut. There was a lot of snapper with the vegies, and intriguingly they paired with each forkfull of vegetables in subtly different ways. Orange Club Cafe has long done fine lunches, by North Van standards. I look forward to sampling its tapas possibilities when greater hunger gives me the opportunity.