When I think about genuine northwest coast food, First Nations cuisine comes to mind. When my wife and I were hitched about 15 years ago, we arranged for the Liliget Feast House to cater the reception, and it drew rave reviews from family and friends. Alas, the Liliget Feast House is long gone, but I recently discovered a new place that serves genuine BC First Nations food. It’s the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler.

Vij’s Indian restaurant in Vancouver made news around the world recently when they added crickets to their menu. Well, they weren’t really serving bowls full of crickets, or curried cricket. What Vik’s co-owner and chef, Meeru Dhalwala, did was added cricket paratha to the menu. It was a traditional Indian flatbread made with the addition of one very un-traditional ingredient — ground up crickets, which replaced 70% of the chapati flour in the recipe.