The latest Vancouver Foodster Tasting Plates Vancouver Fall Edition was last week, November 21. It was the most diverse tasting of food since the Tasting Plates started IMHO. There were 2 Chinese Tea shops, Moroccan cuisine, a raw oyster bar, a funky night club, a pizza food truck, and more chocolate (you can never have enough chocolate tasting), amongst other venues. Here are my favourites of the night.
The Electric Owl
This night club on Main Street was quite surprising with their Asian inspired cuisine. I thougth their Mini Eggplant Sub (a take off of a Vietnamese sub) was very tasty. I liked the crunchy sub bun. Lots of flavour, and not too spicy. Also the Fukuro burger sliders were super ppoular. I like the wasabi slaw that gave the burger some heat. And the Mini Sakana Chipu, a Grey Goose battered ling code bite was done right; crispy and not greasy.
Fukuro burger slider from Electric Owl
Grey Goose battered ling cod bite from Electric Owl
Mini eggplant sub from Electric Owl
Harvest Community Foods
It started out as a cool night, so walking into Harvest Community Foods, with their steam filled windows was welcome. They served a bone warming ramen with Fraser Valley pork shoulder and SOLE food radish.
Ramen with Fraser Valley pork shoulder from Harvest
East of Main Cafe
How many Moroccan restaurants can you name in Vancouver? Well now you can say 1 for sure with the East of Main Cafe. They offered a tasting plate containing:
- Kefta skewer with spicy tomato sauce (I liked the tomato sauce)
- Onion Soup (another bone warmer, with lots of flavour, and not salty as some onion soups can be)
- Spanish torta with mojo sauce (I think my favourite of the items here. The mojo sauce had a nice smoky flavour to it)
- Spiced almond labneh with preserved lemon and herb salsa on a pita chip
Tasting plate from East of Main Cafe
Oyster Express
You can never go wrong with getting a fresh local beach oyster on the half shell, with a squeeze of lemon!
Fresh beach oysters from Oyster Express
The Chinese Tea Shop
This was very interesting. As each wave of people entered the shop, we w0uld sit down and learn a bit about brewing tea the Chinese way. I learned much about special clay tea pots, and size does matter (the smaller the better btw). Also the temperature of the water matters depending on which type of tea you are serving. We tried the Cloud Mist Green tea (served at a cooler temperature) and a Mini Tao Black Pu-erh tea (at a higher temperature).
The Chinese Tea Shop
Pazza Rella Pizza Food Truck
This was my last stop of the evening. I was stuffed like a calzone, but had to try a slice of pizza from their wood fired oven. My slice was from a Margherita pizza, a blend of olive oil, garlic, fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Nice thin crispy crust and flavourful toppings.
Pazza Rella wood burning pizza oven
Beta 5
Last but not least was dessert for the evening. Beta 5 offered a do-it-yourself hot chocolate milk. They served you a steaming cup of milk, and your choice of a stick containing a block of milk or dark chocolate. I went the dark chocolate route. It was very filling. They also had assorted candies anda seasonal creampuff too.
Seasonal cream puff from Beta 5
Food and Wine With Karl MyWinePal 