Before we even attended the Tasting Plates Gastown event I bought tickets for the next one… Tasting Plates Main Street. And I’m glad I did because it was awesome! Now I want to get tickets for the next one, Tasting Plates Latin Flavours. I’m addicted! (Early bird tickets on sale until the end of May, who wants to come?)

Tapas 23

First stop was Tapas 23 for  registration and (L-R):

• potato crusted wings – tasty but you couldn’t tell that it was potato crusted
• albondigas (meatball) – okay but not memorable
• brussels sprouts with balsamic, almonds and cheddar – ultra delicious! brussels sprouts are so trendy
• braised pork belly – the best part. sweet and perfectly cooked

Miura Waffle & Milk Bar

I was very excited for Miura Waffle since it has been on my Restaurants To Try list for like 2 years. How did I not know that it’s located right next to the bus stop where I change buses on the way home??!! We got to try (clockwise from top):

• dessert nachos (nori chip, chocolate, banana and strawberry) – way better than I expected. the nori taste worked well with the sweet strawberry
• kachan karaage waffle sando (ginger fried chicken with asian slaw on a waffle) – nice and juicy on a great waffle
• nori nachos (nori chip, salsa and sour cream) – kinda tasty
• teri-vani waffle sando (ice cream with teriyaki sauce on a waffle) – was scared to try this, but pleasantly surprised! good ol’ sweet salty combination!!

Rosemary Rocksalt

This place is also located right next to where I end up spending MANY minutes waiting for the bus on the way home. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before because it’s really cool looking inside. Very hipster. Their bagels and rugelach were AMAZINGGGGG. We tried:

• Montreal smoked meat sandwich on a rosemary rocksalt bagel – piled high with meat, nice smear of mustard, on a GREAT bagel. the flakes of salt complete it
• lox and cream cheese on a bagel – really nice
• chocolate walnut rugelach – AMAZING. crunchy, buttery, sweet, perfection. please send me 9000000 more of these.
• chocolate raspberry rugelach – Scott loved it

Will 100% be returning to Rosemary Rocksalt for more bagels.

Main Street Honey Shoppe

Have you ever tried raw honeycomb? I hadn’t, but the little cracker with gouda and honeycomb was da bomb. I would love to eat this again but where the heck would I get some honeycomb??? Scott had cheddar with honeycomb. We also had little samples of almond cake, brownie and a ginger buckwheat cookie. Everything was made with their honey and very nice. I especially enjoyed the super moist bouncy almond cake.

We also got to try like 15 kinds of honey which was really cool. They all had different flavours depending on which flowers the bees visited. The honey tasting wasn’t special for the event, you can go in any time and try them, which I recommend! I didn’t even think I liked honey but now I know I do!

I also spent a while chatting with one of the staff about local honey for allergies. Apparently the belief that local honey can help with allergies because it contains local pollen in it and you build immunity from ingesting them is false. It is actually the phytochemical nutrients and propolis which help increase the body’s immunity, remove toxins, and act as an anti-inflammatory. Cool!

Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co

Next stop, pizza! We had:

• farmers market pizza (balsamic marinated rhubarb, tomato, pesto, goats cheese) – really tasty. I looooooove cherry tomatoes and goats cheese!
• naturally meaty (beef, sausage, tomatoes, green pepper, red onion, asiago, fresh herbs) – ok but I don’t care for one of the herbs they use, not sure what it was though

Shaktea

Last stop was tea and treats. I only tried the non caffeinated African dream rooibos. It smelled great but I didn’t like the taste as much. We also tried a chilli brownie that was pretty spicy! And a matcha date ball.

All in all, tons of great food. We didn’t have to wait at any of the restaurants like last time, which was a bonus. Can’t wait for the next event!!

Last Wednesday Scott and I went to a tasting event in Gastown put on by Vancouver Foodster. We got to try food at eight different restaurants all within a couple blocks downtown. We unintentionally met up with one of Scott’s work friends and her bf while waiting in the line. It was great to have some company.

Catch 122

We picked up our food map cards at Catch 122 and stayed to try a housemade tortellini (with cheese, bacon, soubise sauce), pressed confit pork shoulder (with potato and crackling), and krehm broo lay (no idea why it is spelled like that). The tortellini and creme brule were very nice, but I liked the pork the most! It had a great crunch. We all enjoyed the food at this first stop. My dark & stormy was watery and disappointing though, despite house-made ginger beer.

Hives For Humanity @ Hastings Urban Farm

Next we stopped at Hastings Urban Farm for some Hives for Humanity raw honey. We got a quick tour of the farm where we learned all about purple asparagus. It was funny that we had all been down that section of Hastings lots of times before but never realized there was a functioning farm there. I thought I didn’t really like honey, but that honey was TASTY! The biscuit was very very nice as well.

Side note, does anyone know how much local honey I would need to eat to help my seasonal allergies? When would it be best to eat it if my allergies are bad from March to April? I know it’s possible, but I don’t know the details.

Salt Tasting Room

Next stop, Blood Alley for some charcuterie and wine. We got a (paper) plate of meat, cheese, bread, sour cherry jam and grain mustard. I wish I could tell you more about the meat and cheese but we didn’t get much info here. I liked the two condiments, and the ham, but the cheese was quite dry and hard.

The Irish Heather

There was a bit of a line at The Irish Heather, but it was worth it. We were given huge plates of steak & ale stew on colcannon. The stew had tons of flavour and the potatoes were sooooooo buttery and delicious. We all loved it. We thought there was a lot of food ahead on the tour so I purposely didn’t finish the giant plate of stew even though it was extremely moreish.

I thought it was interesting that I left mostly meat, Scott left mostly sauce, and Charmaine left mostly potatoes. We all have different priorities, clearly. (Her bf left nothing, hahaha).

Milano Coffee

Next stop was Milano Coffee for two tiny cups of strong coffee. I skipped this one so I don’t have anything to say about it. No way I’m going to drink espresso in the evening ever.

Bitter

I forgot to take a picture of the pulled pork taco we had at Bitter. We scarfed and ran at that stop because we were starting to run out of time. The taco was meh. The meat was dry in my opinion. Bitter was very busy and all the waiters looked super stressed.

Burgundy

We purposely left Burgundy for the end of the evening because we assumed that goat cheese fondue, beef bourguignon, and chocolate mousse would be rich and heavy. We planned on sitting and having a drink here but it ended up being very different than expected!!

There were no chairs, and the serving was very well organized and efficient! Immediately after entering we were given a tasting glass of wine.

This was the goat cheese fondue! I had been wondering how they were going to serve it!! So you get a ladle-full of cheese poured on a skewer of bread, apple and grape, with a handy muffin liner to catch drips. Genius! I loved it, of course.

After the fondue we got a little glass jar of beef bourguinon. It was good but it was too dark to take a good photo. It was rich but pretty tiny so it wasn’t overwhelming.

On the way out we got a little dollop of delicious chocolate mousse, and a baby cone of sorbet. I couldn’t figure out what the flavour of the sorbet was but it was very tasty and refreshing.

Trees Organic

Last stop was Trees Organic for cheesecake. It was mega busy because everyone had clearly left this stop for last. The cheesecake on the left was almond marzipan cheesecake, and the one on the right was New York Cheesecake. The word marzipan turns me off, but really it just tasted very almondy, like the butter tart thingy my uncle makes. I liked it. The other cheesecake was more delicious though, simple and really nice and creamy but not too dense. YUM!

My tips for Tasting Plates events:

• Get early bird tickets! The price goes up a lot after the early bird period ends.
• Arrive EARLY or LATE for registration. We arrived right at 6PM and the line was pretty long. Registration is open until 7:30PM so maybe it makes more sense to arrive when the initial rush is over (although I cannot guarantee this as I didn’t see the line later).
• Do it in groups of 4 or less. It seemed like the bigger groups (6+) had to wait a lot longer than the smaller groups.

I already bought tickets to the next one (Main Street) and I’m even more excited to go now! It was a really nice evening.