Our Food
Crawl Collaborative Group decided we needed to wrap up 2013 with a crawl
concept that we’ve been discussing since the earliest food crawls…TACO CRAWL!
I love dedicated, well- thought out, pre- planned
food adventures. This is the third dish-focused food crawl that I've
planned/participated in.
Vancouver isn’t exactly known for its amazing
Mexican food. In fact, many would argue that although Vancouver is a real
cultural mosaic rich with a wide variety of options for delicious, authentic,
accessible ethnic foods…Mexican food options have been few and far between and
more Taco Bell than Taquiera. But over the past few years, there seems to have
been a bit of a taco revolution and more and more options for tasty tacos and
Mexican food popping up over Van city.
Four
participants. Each participant picks a taco joint OR a specific taco dish
they've been wanting to try. I drive the taco wagon (aka my Honda Fit) and come
up with logistics, scheduling, route that makes sense. At each stop, we either
have done our research and picked a taco OR ask our server for their most
popular taco/ their recommendation. One taco per crawler per venue.
Let the adventure
begin!
The
Mexican, Antojitos y Cantina
The
Taco: Carnitas (Secret recipe for tender braised pork), $3 each or 4 for $11
Lifebitesmm:
The Mexican
is tucked away between nightclubs, bars, and shops on the Granville
entertainment strip. This casual spot was packed when we arrived around 7pm and
mainly full of people speaking Spanish. A good sign! Since it was busy, it was
quite lively and a bit noisy from all the chatter. It’s clean with simple
décor, latin music, and a large screen TV playing soccer. They’ve got a pretty
extensive and delicious sounding menu and everything set at very affordable
prices.
The Mexican
was my taco venue choice, but I didn’t have my taco order fully decided. Based
on research, I was waffling between the carnitas, milenesa, and lengua….I asked
the server for the most popular choice or house favourite and he suggested the
carnitas. This was probably the most traditional and most basic taco on our
crawl. Each taco was a generous scoop of tender, flavourful (hint of orange
flavour), rich, slow cooked shredded pork served on a two small corn tortillas.
Just meat and corn tortilla with a small side of cilantro and diced onions that
you can add as garnish. The corn tortillas here are stand out awesome- great
flavour! And a special shout out for their delicious in house hot sauce. All in
all, a good find with a fantastic sounding menu and great option for a meal on
the Granville strip.
The Leggy
Redhead:
Carnitas---
very simple, old school style. Place we busy which is always a good sign.
Pork was nicely cooked, but needed a little love in the flavour
department. Unfortunately a little bland for my liking. But, with
hot sauce and salsa, good taco! I'm not a fan of corn tortillas (usually
too thick and dry for me). Theses ones...super yummy! So, for the
person that likes to build their own layers of flavour, this place is a good
choice.
The
Bad Jew:
Life Bites
once again showed her impressive research chops by finding this little nook of
Mexican goodness on the downtown Granville street strip which frequently leaves
much to be desired. Authentic feeling
décor and atmosphere; footie game on the tele – ‘natch.
Good prices to be found on the menu and more importantly, no backwards
baseball caps or other signs of Granville St. douchbaggery.
First order
of business was to lay out the ground rules for the Taco Crawl – four identical
tacos to be ordered at each stop – one for each Crawlie (my newly minted term –
let’s see if it sticks). More
importantly, The Bad Jew wanted to get a ruling on Tostadas – tacos for the
purpose of the crawl or not? The main
difference appears to be that a tostada has a toasted tortilla vs. a soft
tortilla for a traditional taco. So if a
hard shell taco gets the taco nod then surely a tostada should be considered a
member of the taco family – right?
Contrary, albeit weak, points of views were expressed. DING DING DING – The Bad Jew wins this
ruling. Give me a Chelada (beer with
lime and salt for an extra $1) to celebrate my moral victory!
We went with
the Carnitas taco described as “secret recipe for a tender braised pork”. A generous helping of pork meat served with
diced onion, cilantro, hot sauce and lime wedge. The meat was moist, had a pleasant natural
flavour and was nicely salted. There was
no added sauce on the pork which certainly felt traditional but a bit out of
character for our fusion obsessed town.
The tortilla (which was served in the proper double stack style –
props!) was springy and not too dry.
Overall, The Mexican served a solid, traditional taco – fancy pants diners
may be disappointed. One Crawlie was
heard to say “Real Mexicans eat here”.
Excellent
work on hitting the dirty beast right out of the gate on this crawl, Life Bites. A fitting start to the Hanukkah holiday, The
Bad Jew having lit the lights on the first night less than an hour prior. I’m such a Bad Jew – shame on me and my
stomach!
The Glib:
The first
stop and taco provided the classic benchmark. This very Mexican eatery featured
a traditional list of tacos, and the expected slower than expected service. It
being the first day of Hanukah, Lifebitesmm got the Bad Jew off to a quality
start with her choice of very un-Kosher, but very well prepared pork.
Its diverse
cliental absent douchebaggery and drunk college kids belied the Granville and
Nelson location. This will be a great lunch time venue to watch the FIFA World
Cup in June. Expect a passionate football literate crowd.
Now, the
taco. Simple pork, tender, without grease, on warm tortilla, served with a less
than sufficient portion of raw onion and a wedge of lime. Some early hoarding
left those late to the game without garnish. (A near tragedy for some remedied
with some early evening cooperation and redistribution.) The selection of hot
sauces gave the necessary heat to cause the flavours to punch through, and the
evening was off to an excellent start.
....next up, Part 2, Cuchillo...
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