{"id":9797,"date":"2017-01-21T15:36:21","date_gmt":"2017-01-21T23:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/?p=9797"},"modified":"2017-01-21T15:48:22","modified_gmt":"2017-01-21T23:48:22","slug":"vancouver-noodle-mania-vanfoodster-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/vancouver-noodle-mania-vanfoodster-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Noodle Mania by Vanfoodster – Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Noodles are one of the most common staple foods in many cultures on this planet. Thanks to Vanfoodster<\/a>\u00a0who has put together another Noodle Mania adventure, we get to enjoy a fun restaurant crawl in the city, and tasting noodle dishes of\u00a0different world cuisines. I made\u00a0sure I had a light lunch that day, as I needed an empty belly for all those delicious noodle dishes from 6 places!<\/p>\n

Meeting at Commodity Juicery\u00a0<\/a>on Fraser Street, we collected our Noodle Mania\u00a0passes. There was a\u00a0map of all the places we were about to visit on each pass. \u00a0Then we tasted\u00a0some Zucchini Noodles<\/strong> and a Bubble Tea with Chia Pearls<\/strong>. \u00a0What a light and refreshing way to start the evening. I had visited Commodity Juicery in the past<\/a>. They specilize in cold pressed juices with health benefits, as well as tasty vegan drinks, snacks, meals, and even desserts.<\/p>\n

\"Commodity<\/a>
Commodity Juicery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Zucchini<\/a>
Zucchini Noodles & Chia Pearl Bubble Tea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over in Riley Park, our\u00a0next stop was Organic Acres<\/a>, where we were greeted by Skylar and Chloe from Kids Can Cook Gourmet<\/a>. Skylar prepared a\u00a0pasta dish using\u00a0a pasta sauce produced by him and his sister. The pasta sauce was made with all organic ingredients. Tasting the dish and listening to their story was one of the most inspirational moments so far this year. It is never too early or too late in your life to chase your dreams. Their pasta sauces are\u00a0in 3 flavours: Creamy Tomato<\/strong>, Mariana<\/strong> and Tomato & Basil<\/strong>, and they are available at Whole Foods, Urban Fare, Save-on Foods, and other community grocery stores.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Skylar<\/a>
Skylar and Chloe of “Kids Can Cook”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Skylar<\/a>
Skylar and Chloe of “Kids Can Cook”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\""Kids<\/a>
“Kids Can Cook” Pasta Sauce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We could have\u00a0gone to the closest next stop in Mount Pleasant<\/strong>, \u00a0Chutney Villa on Broadway and Main. \u00a0But we figured that everyone would be\u00a0there next, crowding the place. So we drove\u00a0straight to Downtown. This is why those restaurant crawls are so fun because we can design the visit route any way we want – it’s like a treasure hunt!<\/p>\n

We arrived at Yaletown L’antipasto<\/a>, and it was not busy here\u00a0as expected. The Yaletown<\/strong>\u00a0Italian restaurant\u00a0offered 2 pasta dishes: the Spaghetti alle Vongole<\/strong> and the Garganelli in Tomato Sauce<\/strong>, both simple and classic. The spaghetti dish featured manila clams cooked in evoo, garlic, chili and pinot grigio. The flavour\u00a0was bold and\u00a0slightly on the spicy xanax over the counter <\/a> side. I also enjoyed\u00a0the al dente\u00a0texture of Garganelli.<\/p>\n

\"Yaletown<\/a>
Yaletown L’antipasto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Spaghetti<\/a>
Spaghetti alle Vongole @ Yaletown L’antipasto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Garganelli<\/a>
Garganelli with Tomato Sauce @ Yaletown L’antipasto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next we drove across the bridge and found ourselves\u00a0in\u00a0Mount Pleasant<\/strong>. And as I predicted, there wasn’t much a crowd anymore at Chutney Villa<\/a>. The South Indian restaurant offered a Sri Lankan style seafood soft noodle<\/strong> dish. Seafood and spices, that sounds like a winner combination\u00a0to me! \u00a0 The noodles were quite spicy actually, and the description ‘a tint of spices’ was definitely an understatement. \u00a0Nevertheless we enjoyed the big\u00a0flavours, and we wanted to come back here to try their other dishes. We also ordered some chai tea, which soothed our palate while having spicy food.<\/p>\n

\"Chai<\/a>
Chai Tea @ Chutney Villa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Spicy<\/a>
Spicy Seafood Noodles @ Chutney Villa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Chutney<\/a>
Chutney Villa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To get to our next stop, we drove through Downtown Eastside<\/strong> and Strathcona<\/strong>, and arrived at\u00a0Thailicious<\/a> in the\u00a0Hastings-Sunrise<\/strong> neighbourhood. \u00a0Mainly an open Thai kitchen offering take-out and delivery services, there is\u00a0also a long narrow dining area here as well. \u00a0We tried their Tofu Pad Thai<\/strong> and Chicken Pad Sii-ew<\/strong>, both delivered exotic spicy flavours from Thailand. I always enjoy the crushed peanuts and fresh bean spouts, which create the extra crunch on the soft noodle, a signature used in a lot of Thai dishes.<\/p>\n

\"Tofu<\/a>
Tofu Pad Thai and Chicken Pad Sii-ew @ Thalilicious<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Noodle<\/a>
Noodle Mania @ Thailicious<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our last stop, Basil Garden<\/a> is not too far from the last stop – \u00a0It is right on\u00a0the border between Hastings-Rise<\/strong> and East Village<\/strong>, offering a\u00a0taste of Vietnam in\u00a0their noodle dishes. \u00a0There were 3 choices: the Special Beef Pho<\/strong>, the Satay Peanut and Beef Pho<\/strong>, and the Vegetarian Pho<\/strong> with tofu\u00a0and assorted vegetables. I enjoyed the beef pho but was surprised to discover how flavourful the broth is for the vegetarian pho. The use of fried onion and a touch of soy sauce did the trick.<\/p>\n

\"Basil<\/a>
Basil Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Beef<\/a>
Beef Pho @ Basil Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Vegetarian<\/a>
Vegetarian Noodle Soup @ Basil Garden<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That was a lot of noodles! \u00a0We ended the adventure satisfied with great flavours from the\u00a0many different noodle dishes of\u00a0different cuisines.<\/p>\n

The next exciting Tasting Plate events will be in the Dine Out Vancouver Brunch Crawl <\/a>series.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Noodles are one of the most common staple foods in many cultures on this planet. Thanks to Vanfoodster\u00a0who has put together another Noodle Mania adventure, we get to enjoy a fun restaurant crawl in the city, and tasting noodle dishes of\u00a0different world cuisines. I made\u00a0sure I had a light lunch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[177,250,261,249],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/FullSizeRender-15.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9797"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9821,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9797\/revisions\/9821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pickydiners.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}