One of the great things that I love about living in Metro Vancouver is the remarkable diversity. And in recent years, we’ve started to see more and more of this diversity represented in the restaurant scene. We want more variety and we want to explore more culinary traditions. So, unsurprisingly, we couldn’t help but to check out the Indo-African fusion food at Trade Winds Restaurant in Burnaby.
We happened to be in the area, near Boundary and Canada Way, and we had originally intended on checking out Big Star Sandwich. Needless to say, Trade Winds Restaurant — located next to the Starbucks, taking over a spot that’s been empty for as long as I can remember — is quite different from your typical “western” sandwich joint.
As far as I can gather, the Indo-African culinary tradition was born out of the Indian diaspora in Southeast Africa. We’ve had a taste of this at Safari Snack House (on Canada Way near Deer Lake Park), but Trade Winds offers more of a traditional restaurant setting. The menu, as you might suspect, offers a fusion of Indian and African cuisine, but with a dash of “westernization.”
In chatting with the staff, the restaurant — named after the route taken by Portuguese trading ships — is currently in a “soft opening” phase. The display case near the front was still empty at the time of our visit, for instance. They plan to have more of a proper opening “soon.”
So, how was the food?
Lunch Special: Mac Cheese Chicken Choma with Naan ($13.95)
Displayed on signage out front, but not (yet?) printed on an actual menu, the lunch specials are offered from 11 am to 3 pm. They come accompanied with your choice of fries, pilau rice or salad. Some options on the list include Manchurian beef ribs choma, tandoori chicken club house, and paneer tikka wrap served with vindaloo butter sauce.
Since we needed something not spicy (at all) for the four-year-old, we went with this. Nyama choma (“barbecued meat” in Kiswahili) is the unofficial national dish of Kenya. This version blends in the tradition of the Northern Indian tandoor; the net result is, well, like tandoori chicken. The boneless morsels
Below the boneless morsels of chicken is fairly standard-issue mac and cheese. It’s super-melty with plenty of cheese sauce, though I found this had an odd (almost metallic?) taste to it. We were also provided some naan to go with the dish.
Spiceland: Lamb Palak with Naan ($18.95)
We were going to order the lamb kheema vindaloo… then our server told us that it’s “very spicy” (as vindaloo tends to be) and that we should try the lamb palak instead. He insisted that it has a more complex, rich flavor with creamed spinach and just a “medium” level of spiciness.
To be honest, it wasn’t that hot at all and we probably could have handled quite a bit more heat. I guess he was only trying to protect us. That said, he was right in saying the dish was rich and flavorful and creamy. The boneless lamb chunks were super tender and we happily sopped up the curry with the provided naan.
There aren’t too many places around town that offer Indo-African food. Aside from Safari Snack House, the only other one I know is Jambo Grill on Kingsway near Joyce. And while I’ve had better Indian food elsewhere, Trade Winds Restaurant (#201 -3300 Boundary Road, Burnaby BC) is very much looking to fill an underrepresented niche.
Lunch came to just under $40, including taxes and gratuity.
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