Hope everyone enjoyed part 1 of my Vancouver trip. The fish & chips and sushi covered in part 1 were a great introduction to Vancouver seafood. Things however we about to take a turn towards Pork Nirvana in a BIG way.

My friend took me to a very small meat store called J,N & Z Deli Smoked Meat located at 1729 Commercial Drive in Vancouver. Quite simply put, this small space is the best meat store I have ever been in anywhere, which includes Biltong stores in Cape Town, South Africa. The Viktualienmarkt in Munich and countless Boucheries in Paris and other parts of France.

I knew this place was gonna be cool when I caught Santa selling hand painted wooden eggs in front while smoking a hand rolled cigarette.

When you step into the store, it is like taking a step back in time. The staff is very friendly and extremely knowledgeable about everything in the store.

READ ON for more of this week’s Friday 4 the Foodies…

Here are some of the interior pictures I shot upon entering:

Some of the items they had for sale in the store I had never heard of and wanted to try.  On Saturdays they have roast suckling pig and a product I had never heard of before called bacon roll (see picture below):

Which, when sliced looks like this:

and when it is cooked looks like this:

They also had homemade meat loaf:

and another product that I had never seen before called Paprika Bacon, which told was bacon covered with raw garlic and paprika, then smoked.

We did a dinner party at my friend’s apartment and wound up serving the meatloaf and paprika bacon together.  Sorry no picture of it but basically we heated up some rendered bacon fat, pan seared a nice size slice of the meat loaf in the bacon fat then heated it through in the oven.  Once that finished we pan seared  the paprika bacon and put it in the oven as well.  We cut both into cubes and served the meatloaf with the paprika bacon on top.

We also bought  several different types of smoked meats that we served as a charcuterie platter (left to right: suckling pig, smoked filet mignon, speck and another smoked meat)

Oh yeah, the other starter for the dinner party was Foie Gras served with gianduja whipped cream and grilled brioche filled with maple vanilla butter.

I stopped documenting and started partying after the foie gras so I am going to end part 2 here.  There is still more to come,  so there will be a part 3.   Also in the coming weeks I will be putting together an article on the trip I took to the Vieux Pontarlier Absinthe Distillery in Pontarlier, France last May.

Life itself is the proper binge – Julia Child

Jon Hochstat

I created the weekly food column for Hidden Track. Currently working on my own food related website, details to come soon...It's a big world, someone's gotta write about it.