Tasting Plates YVR: Gastown Edition

Having lived in Vancouver all my life, I was surprised that I've never been thought of going on a food tour here before. Curtis (foodobyte) recently started bringing me along to Tasting Plates YVR which is a food tour put on my Vanfoodster and it literally is like a pub crawl, but for food!

The tasting plate adventure this time around was in the Gastown area. Yay!

Our registration check-in was at Catch 122. I previously visited this place before (post here) and had a subpar experience. However, these three tasting bites were impressive. In the front is this delicious and juicy pressed confit pork shoulder with smoked potato and pork crackling. 

Another outstanding item is the house-made tortellini with Quebec cheese curd, house-smoked bacon, and soubise sauce. To say it was smokey is an understatement. This tortellini bursted with flavour inside my mouth and I would gladly eat a whole plate of this.

Next up was the Hastings Urban Farm which promoted Hives for Humanity's raw honey served on the comb and Martin's Marvelous rosemary lavendar and chocolate mole crisps. 

If you are ever on Hastings, you should go check this farm out! When it's bright out, you'll even see the bees working in their little hive!

Honey comb is unlike anything I've ever tasted and is certainly a special treat. The crisps were also delicious and reminded me of the local Lesley Stowe crisps I get all the time.

I've never heard of Burgundy Restaurant before so I was excited to try out some of their offerings. 

The Goat Cheese Fondue was a little more pungent than the usual Swiss or Gruyere but I quite enjoyed it. Especially with the seemingly odd pairings of grape and apple.

They also had a sample of Beef Bourguignon and it was delish. A nice baguette would have been perfect to soak up all the leftover rich gravy.

Last but not least is the (dollop :P) of Chocolate Mousse. Light, rich, delicious.

My only disappointment on the food tour was the Bitter Tasting Room. Not only was the food mediocre, when I asked for a cup of hot water (I had a sore throat at the time), they just gave me hot tap water. Not boiled... I didn't end up touching it.

Their barbecue pulled pork taco was quite bland and dry with no hint of barbecue taste.

At the Salt Tasting Room, we were given two meats, one cheese, three condiments, and crackers.

I am in no way a sophisticated person when it comes to food so meat, cheese, and bread like this are just not my cup of tea. However, all the ingredients were undoubtedly fresh and quite delicious on their own.

Milano Coffee is apparently a very well known coffee shop with three locations in Vancouver alone.

This is totally a hipster coffee shop (I'll get to it in a sec) with a large variety of healthy, organic, and gluten conscious power bars.

First of all, did I miss the memo when all wooden stir sticks changed to pasta? HIPSTER! :P Anyways, the Espresso La Futura Macchiato is not for the faint of heart. But if you like strong triple shot espressos at Starbucks? You'll probably enjoy this.

The Espresso Nuovo Stovetop was absolutely deicious!!! It was smooth, creamy, and a ton of people on the tour loved it too (yes I eavesdropped :P).

At The Irish Heather, we were given a plate of Steak & Ale Stew on Calcannon. I enjoyed its robust flavour and I wouldn't mind it on a cold windy night.

Our last stop of the day was a coffee and dessert shop called Trees Organic. They are famous for their cheesecakes and amazingly, this was one of our restaurants on the tour!

We got a sample of the New York Cheesecake and the Almond Marzipan Cheesecake. Unlike most cheesecakes, this one was light, fluffy, and not dense in the slightest. I like my cheesecake with a bit more substance so I actually didn't prefer this variety. Curtis on the other hand really enjoyed this.

Tasting Plates tickets are around $40 per ticket and the next one is in the Main Street neighbourhood. You can buy tickets here.

Happy Eating!