Grated Expectations

OH MAN, so much food. The latest Tasting Plates event was the most generous one yet. So much deliciousness.

The evening started at A.G.R.O. Roasters for registration and coffee but I didn’t take any pictures there because I don’t care for coffee. We basically just took the coffee samples and ran back to the car to get to the next restaurant anyway.

La Mezcaleria

My plan was to have a margarita at each restaurant, semi-serious. It started off well, I had margaritas at the first two restaurants, but then the rest of the places didn’t have them, so my crazy margarita crawl ended up being pretty responsible. Haha.

La Mezcaleria drinks are really really good. I love lime.

Red snapper ceviche, guacamole, and a chicken tinga tostada.

Everything was awesome. Very fresh and nicely put together. This plate of food was almost enough for a whole meal on its own! We started to realize we were in trouble.

The combination of the tasty food, the live band, and being able to watch the chefs cook made this our favourite stop of the whole evening. I’ve been there before and I definitely will be returning again.

El Azteca

Margarita #2. Half the price, but too sweet.

Ceviche, guacamole, and cochinita pibil.

This plate was fairly similar to what we had at La Mezcaleria. So much food! The ceviche wasn’t as nice (the strange sweet red sauce ruined it) but we thought the pork tostada was really good. And the chips were nice and extra crunchy.

Las Tortas

Cochinita pibil torta (sandwich), chips and salsa, and a churro.

The sandwich was pretty good, but I think we were already so full we didn’t enjoy it as much as we might have on an empty stomach. My sandwich was ULTRA spicy, but the rest of the group didn’t seem to be. My lips were tingling!! The salsas had great flavour. The churro was kind of dense and not great. I’m sure they would be better if they were prepared fresh.

Chicha

Quinoa salad with mango, cheese and chili croquette, calamari and chorizo skewer, basil mashed potatoes.

I had been wanting to try Chicha for a very long time. It’s right across the street from where I change buses on the way to work and I think their restaurant sign is very visually appealing, plus I knew they had great reviews on Urbanspoon. It did not disappoint, this was a great plate of food.

Chicha is a Peruvian restaurant so the flavours were different than everywhere we had been so far. The salad was refreshing, the croquette was indulgent, the skewer was intriguing, and the mashed potatoes were comforting.

Guanaco Food Truck

Horchata while waiting for our food. Sweet but not tooooo sweet.

Pork and chicken pupasas and fried cassava.

Cheesy corny goodness. These were nice but I was basically exploding at this point so I didn’t have that much.

Sal Y Limon

Last stop. Shrimp ceviche, and chicken tinga tostada.

The ceviche was actually not very nice. But the chicken tostada was pretty decent. Again, I was pretty much in a food coma so I just had a bit of each and gave the rest to Lauren.

Lauren basically thought it was the best night ever because he got to eat all his food plus all the food Rosemarie and I couldn’t finish, hahaha.

Their horchata was very sweet.

SERIOUS FOOD COMA. A great night of eating. It was the best Tasting Plates event yet, I think.

Our aunt and uncle came to visit last week. So Rosemarie and Lauren came over too and we played games on the patio and ate vegetables (to counteract our future dinner). We had asked MEP to bring her 5-6 player expansion for Settlers so everyone could play, and she let us keep it. Thank you!! It was an intense game of Settlers. We also played a mildly awkward game of Cards Against Humanity, haha. A good catch up session overall!

Then we all headed to the Richmond Night Market. Even though it was Sunday it was sooooooo busy!! I was worried that the n00bs would feel overwhelmed by the crowds, but luckily they are all really tall people… so maybe it wasn’t so claustrophobic? It was also really easy to find them in the crowd. :D

Started with some traditional takoyaki. Very tasty, after you get over the lava hot aspect.

Paul bought a sweet chilli “fish stick”. None of us really knew what it was, but it was delicious!! Crispy fried sweet spicy salty on a stick. The vendor said it was white fish, but the texture was unlike any fish I have seen before. But if you don’t think too much about what it is made out of you can focus on how good it was. Would eat again.

We all split a jumbo serve of chicken karaage. Also sweet and spicy. Really good.

Rotato!! The line for this was sooooo long. Also the price has gone up to SIX BUCKS!! So expensive. They are good but that wait and price is getting out of hand.

Richmond Night Market = EVERYTHING FRIED. But it’s ok cuz they deep fry all the bad stuff away. ;)

Even the desserts are fried.

Rosemarie had been waiting for YEARS to try a deep fried cheesecake. She was very very excited.

And it did not disappoint. Her and Lauren chose the nutella banana option. It seems like they use the same deep fried cheesecake base for everything, and then just put different toppings on top of it. That cheesecake pocket might not look that special but once you cut it open and the warm gooey liquid cheesecake starts running out… you see why it is amazing. I think this is one of the better value items at the night market.

Finally Scott grabbed a corn ice cream snorkel for dessert. They use some kind of injection tubing system to fill the tubes with soft serve. The novelty was better than the taste though.

We had some other stuff too… bubble tea, a sundae, fish waffles, ha gao… probably more that I forget. It is awesome going to the night market with a big group because you get to try so many things!