Grayson and I don’t go out for anything too fancy very often because it’s just not who we are but every once in a while we decide to go for something different. This was one of those days. STEM Japanese Eatery has been on my mind for a while now but there hasn’t been a good time for us to go until now. STEM is pretty small on the inside with a few bar spots and some tables scattered throughout the restaurant. The day we visited there was a larger party so most of the tables were taken up so we were glad we made a reservation ahead of time.
We took quite a while to decide on what to eat because there was so much to choose from. They had a regular menu and then a winter menu with seasonal items. We liked how they had this because we love it when restaurants have feature menus that reflect what is local at the moment.
Onsen Tamago
This came with 64 degree rabbit river farm free range egg, dashi espuma, koshihikari rice, kale stem and dried shrimp furikake. I know it sounds super simple but it was AMAZING. I’m still dreaming about it as we speak. You wouldn’t think some thing this simple would be so flavorful but it was packed full of umami! The dash espuma was foamy and silky while the egg was rich and creamy. The shrimp furikake added crunch and the rice just soaked everything up. Perfection.
Mushroom Omelette
This was a rolled egg omelette stuffed with green onions and topped with a variety of stewed mushrooms. It also had a side of grated radish that had been seasoned with soy sauce I presume? We’ve never had an omelette like this before. It was just so soft and tender!
I wish I could describe how pillowy it was but even words wouldn’t do it justice. It was soooo good and I loved how you could see each layer of rolled egg when you looked at the cross-section!
Dried baby squid
In contrast to the soft omelette, the dried squid was TOUGH. It was hard to chew and super dry. It came with a mayo to dip in but even then we couldn’t get through eating it. We were pretty disappointed with this one but it was something new that we got to try since we’ve never seen it on any other menu before.
Duck Tsuke Soba
Last but not least we had a soba. The noodles were cold but the broth that you dipped the noodles in was hot so it warmed the noodles up before you ate it. This reminded us of zaru soba which is a cold preparation of this where the dipping sauce is cold. We liked how the warm sauce heated the noodles up slightly so that it was the perfect temperature when you ate it.
The dipping sauce had a few pieces of duck in it for you to have with the noodles. I’m not a huge fan of duck and I found it to be quite tough and similar to liver in texture if you’ve had that before. Grayson on the other hand loved it and was more than happy to have a couple extra slices!
STEM Japanese Eatery reminds me of Suika where they offer a variety of Japanese specialty dishes you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. It was definitely worth the try and we are glad to have a place like this in Burnaby!