I attended my very first Dishcrawl event last week after being invited to it by the new Vancouver Dishcrawl ambassador, Yana Kim. I didn't know what Dishcrawl was, so I did some research and found out that they guide you to four restaurants in a cool part of town over the course of an evening. To add an aura of mystery, we were not told where to meet until 48 hours before the event began.
Our event was themed Silk Road, and all we knew was that we would visit four restaurants within walking distance, all on Commercial Drive but that was about it!
Our group of 30 met at Siddhartha'sfor our first tasting. We sampled traditional Indian fare, such as naan, aloo tikka and more. Read the review here.
Next stop? A short stroll to Carthage Cafe for some Tunisian and French cuisine. We had salads, something called Fatima's Fingers (!), and amazing merguez sausages. Read the review here.
The third stop took us to Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria, where we were served an amazingly rich tomato bisque and a refreshing Caprese Salad. Read the review here.
Our final stop of the nice brought us to Italy in the form of Caffe Calabria, where we helped ourselves to a trio of sorbetto in fun decorated space. Read the the review here. All food, taxes and tips are included in the price, but any additional beverages are subject to extra charges.
To learn about future Dishcrawl events, visit: http://www.dishcrawl.com/vancouver/
Final Stop of Dishcrawl Vancouver: Silk Road Tour - Caffe Calabria!What stands out most about this cafe is the decor. It's totally over the top; with statues and paintings completely filling out the space. There's something every where you look! One the the sons of the Murdocco family gave us a brief history of the space. Although we were at the end of our Dishcrawl journey and only had room for dessert, it is interesting to note that they had panins and other savoury items too. The trio of Sorbetto had lemon, raspberry and orange as well. The flavours were really rich and the texture was nice and airy. It was creamy without being heavy. Other stops on the Silk Road Dishcrawl:
Second Stop of Dishcrawl Vancouver: Silk Road Tour - Carthage Cafe! I have been to Carthage Cafe before after they were featured in the Vancouver Courier a few months ago. See my previous review. For our tasting, we started off with Doigts de Fatima, served with a side of Tunisian Salad. This spring roll style appetizer was filled with a blend of cheese, tuna, and boiled eggs. The mixture is held together with more eggs. I found the texture more spongy than crispy, though I was surprised by how light the wrapper was. The filling was rather dense as well. I did enjoy the salad, which had a refreshing mix of apple, tomatoes, and bell peppers in a tangy vinaigrette, served on a butter lettuce leaf. The next dish was the Merguez Coucous and I really enjoyed this one. The sausages are a blend of lamb and beef and were surprisingly juicy. The mixed vegetables were plentiful and completely hid the huge portion of coucous underneath. The bed of coucous absorbed all the flavours and juices from the sausages and vegetables above, and it was sensational.
To be honest, this was already quite a bit of food, but wait there's more! Here is the Lamb Tagine! This place is a meatlover's heaven! Inside the tagine was large chunks of Lamb Shank, and again, lots of mixed vegetables, all slow roasted together. There was also an interesting addition of raisins and olives to the mixture. And although you can see that there are lots of juices in the dish, the lamb itself was a bit tough and a touch dry. There was lots of food at this stop and I couldn't believe there were two more stops!
First Stop of Dishcrawl Vancouver: Silk Road Tour - Siddharthas You can't miss this place...with a giant gorgeous mural on one side, it beckons you to come inside and visit. On the right is our ambassador, Yana, and front and centre is Chef Siddartha, telling us about the origins of the restaurant, as well as what deliciousness awaited us! Our appetizer consisted of a few pieces of Naan, warm and fresh from the kitchen. On the side of that is the Baingan Bharta, a roasted eggplant dish with all the traditional spices, such as garlic, ginger, chilies, coriander, cumin and garam masala. This dish was light, but very flavourful. Then we moved onto the Aloo Tikki, a potato croquette. The potatoes are boiled, mashed and then mixed with some simple spices. Once combined, the patty is then pan fried to a nice golden crispy outside and a tender and moist inside. Another vegetable we received as part of the appetizer was the Saag, a spinach dish that usually is served with cubes of fried paneer cheese. With this version, the paneer was absent, but there was still a richness that resulted from the cream that was used. And in the centre of it all was their Butter Chicken sauce. This went really well with the naan, so well that we had to ask for more naan, not wanting any of the sauce to go to waste!
