The 48th annual Powell Street Festival serves up Japanese-Canadian fare, August 3 and 4
Teriyaki burgers, yakisoba, sushi, and a salmon barbecue are among the culinary highlights at the annual fest
Wak Wak Burger.
Konko Church, imagawayaki.
Powell Street Festival takes place August 3 and 4 in Oppenheimer Park and surrounding area
VANCOUVER’S ANNUAL Powell Street Festival is one of the largest and longest-running community arts festivals in Canada, with a range of events that celebrate Japanese-Canadian culture. One of the best ways to experience any particular place is through its cuisine, and to that end, this year’s fest features more than 20 food vendors.
Among the highlights is Wak Wak Burger. Its name translates to “exciting” in Japanese, and there’s definitely food to get enthused about here. Try the teriyaki burger; tonkatsu, which consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet; toriten, a tempura-style fried chicken; or kurobuta, a type of specialty pork from a heritage breed of pigs in Berkshire, England. Chicken nanban, meanwhile, is originally from the Miyazaki Prefecture and consists of deep-fried chicken dipped in sweet vinegar and served with a tartar sauce.
The Teriyaki Boys will be onsite with rice bowls and yakisoba, a classic dish of stir-fried noodles with vegetables that’s seasoned with a sweet and savoury sauce similar to Worcestershire sauce. Teppan Yaro serves up pork gyoza and rice burgers, while Taco Nori specializes in sushi tacos. Potato San makes Japanese-style hurricane potatoes—each stick deep-fried, topped with katsuo aioli and sprinkled with furikake, a savoury-sweet rice seasoning of sesame seeds and nori seaweed.
Also appearing at the fest are Japanese Crepe Sasuke, Artisan Sakemaker, Secret Ice Cream, Tatchan Noodle, Van Koji Foods, Tea Lani, and Coconama Chocolate, among others.
Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association, Spam musubi.
What’s more, several community booths will be set up, each offering a once-a-year opportunity to taste a variety of authentic Japanese dishes. (Many of the organizations rely on food sales from the festival to support their communities and programming year-round.)
Vancouver Japanese Language School will be dishing up deluxe matcha shaved ice; Konko Church will have imagawayaki, a type of dessert that’s crispy on the outside and filled with sweet red-bean paste or custard cream on the inside; and Vancouver Buddhist Temple is offering beef or vegetable curry bowls, manju (a steamed cake), and inari sushi (sushi rice stuffed inside seasoned deep-fried tofu pockets). The Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association will be serving Spam musubi, a slice of grilled Spam placed atop of a block of rice and wrapped together with nori, akin to onigiri.
Also happening this year is the community-run Powell Street Festival salmon barbecue, the fresh fish being served both days with white rice between Powell Street and Cordova Street next to Oppenheimer Park and the Vancouver Buddhist Temple. 
Related Articles
