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Dishcrawl Gets The “Silk Road” Treatment

Last week we had the opportunity to join a group of other food enthusiasts for an event called Dishcrawl. It was thirty people joined together for a night of food, fun and lots of laughs. It’s kind of a food field trip, where you join others and explore different neighbourhoods in the city, while eating some of the best they have to offer.

This time around it was all about the Commercial Drive neighbourhood, with our guide Yana taking us through a culinary journey loosely based on the history of the Silk Road. The Drive is known for it’s diverse community, but it wasn’t until we took this Dishcrawl tour that we realized it was hiding some spots we’d never been before.

First up was Siddhartha’s Indian Kitchen, where we got to sample a selection of Aloo Tiki, Bhoona Baigan Masala, Palak, Naan, and Butter Chicken sauce — which we were literally eating with a spoon. So. Good.

Here’s Jeremy testing his heat tolerance! Photo by Joann Pai.

Next, we moved on to Carthage Cafe, where they were serving a variety of Tunisian and French cuisine.

Doight de Fatima and Mechouia salad, below. The salad was refreshing, and the spring roll — which was stuffed with tuna, cheese and beans was actually pretty tasty.

We moved on to Italy, and paid Famoso a visit. We’d been here once before last summer, and were looking forward to trying it again.

Famoso served up Margherita pizza, fire-roasted tomato bisque and caprese salad. The soup was our favorite of the three, and reminded us a bit of our own homemade version.

Lastly, we moved on to Cafe Calabria. We’ve walked by this place countless times over the years, but for some reason have never been inside. That will definitely changed after we tasted their sorbetto! 

We had a great time during Dishcrawl. If you’re looking for a fun, interactive and different way to spend time with friends — and meet some new ones, you should really give it a try. For $60 you get to try a great selection of food, and discover some great new spots.

The next Dishcrawl will explore Main Street, and will highlight some of the best eats Riley Park neighbourhood has to offer. The event takes place on May 15th, and tickets are available now.  

Disclaimer: We attended Dishcrawl as media guests, however all opinions are 100% ours.

XX - The Food Gays

SIDDsation by Siddhartha’s Indian Kitchen and VANEATS.ca

This past week we checked out Siddhartha’s Indian Kitchen, located on the corner of Commercial Drive & 5th avenue. We were here to preview their new dining package for VANEATS called SIDDsation, now on sale for just $18. 

Like most of the VANEATS packages, this one has plenty of food for two people — or maybe one really hungry person. Created by head chef and owner Chef Siddhartha Choudhary, the SIDDsation package includes:

Aloo Tiki

Two crispy potato cakes served with a blend of Delhi, tamarind, mango sauces then topped with pomegranate and cilantro.

Chicken Korma

Boneless chicken pieces cooked in Siddharthas exotic curry, accented with cashew nut and raisin gravy

Butter Chicken

Creamy Shahi sauce infused with fenu-greek leaves, cream, tomato marinade and a hint of coconut. Tossed with boneless marinated smoked chicken. 

Kuchumber Salad

A sample size of fresh cucumber, onion, tomato & bell peppers served with chaat masala & chef special dressing

Our evening started off with some house made Traditional Indian Chai which is Indian Black tea with cream, cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves. It was not too spicy, and the perfect amount of sweetness. 

This is the Aloo Tiki. These potato cakes might look small, but took at least 4 bites to eat. Two crispy potato cakes served with a blend of Delhi, tamarind, mango sauces then topped with pomegranate and cilantro.  The pomegranate and mango elements were wonderful, and the crunch of the potato cake was lovely.

Below is the Chicken Korma and the Butter Chicken, which comes served with a side of rice. The Chicken Korma reminded us a bit of homemade curry. The Butter Chicken packed a great punch of flavor. 

Both dishes were solid, but the Butter Chicken really stood out for us. 

We couldn’t help ourselves, and ordered some Garlic Basil Naan bread to help us finish off the butter chicken sauce. 

Siddhartha’s Garlic Basil Naan bread is perfectly buttered naan, with roasted garlic & basil. Crispy, soft, chewy… perfect. This was good naan. Thanks to Ariane for the recommendation — you should also go check out her Siddhartha’s experience here. 

Siddhartha’s is a real gem on the Drive, and we’re glad we got to experience some of what they have to offer with this great package. The ambiance is warm and inviting, and the service was friendly and personable.

To purchase your SIDDsation dining pass, head over to VANEATS.ca. For just $18, this one shouldn’t be missed!

XX - The Food Gays

Disclaimer: We received the SIDDsation Dining Pass complimentary for review purposes, however all thoughts are 100% ours.

Product Review: Baking Steel

At this point, you’re probably thinking we are pretty obsessed with pizza. And you’d be right in thinking that. It’s seriously easy to make at home, and with a seemingly endless variety of toppings to mix and match, we never seem to get bored of its crispy, easy goodness. 

So, you could imagine our excitement (boyish glee, really) when we recently received our own Baking Steel to try out. We have been hearing quite a bit about this little guy and the powers he possesses — and frankly, we were curious to see what it could add to our pizza making experience at home. 

Baking Steel is essentially a ¼” piece of recycled metal, which comes seasoned and ready-to-use. Modernist Cuisine says that “steel is a more conductive cooking surface than a brick oven’s stone,” and because of this your pizza cooks more evenly and at a lower temperature — providing you with that exceptional end result you crave. There are two other models available, the ½” Big version, as well as their Modernist Cuisine Special Edition. 

Ours came with an adorable storage sleeve, made with a reclaimed and re-purposed billboard material. 

We’ve been using our Baking Steel almost two months now, and have been having pretty great results each and every time. We haven’t yet achieved that super bubbly, charred look yet — but we’re also a little scared of our oven’s broil setting, given we once accidentally set some taco shells on fire (but that’s another story).

Previous to this we’d been using a regular old pizza pan, so we couldn’t tell you how the Baking Steel compares to a traditional pizza stone. What we can tell you, however, is that the Baking Steel rocks, and will elevate your pie to a new level. 

Created by Andris Langsdin, Baking Steel originally launched with a modest $3000 fundraiser through Kickstarter — and hit its goal in just 24 hours. It went on to raise over $38,000 and are now in full production mode, with its product sold exclusively through their online shop.

“Although for my day job, I work for a family-owned manufacturing company, Stoughton Steel, outside the office I’m pretty passionate about food – pizza in particular,” Langsdin says.

We can see why! 

These are some fine looking pies, if we do say so.

Night after night, the Baking Steel delivered quality pizza pies, with an impressive cooking time. We were making roughly 6” pizzas, and most cooked in about twelve minutes or less, depending on how thin we rolled our dough.

The down side? We only really found one… and it’s not really a biggie. Your oven needs to be preheated to 500 degrees Celsius for at least 1 hour before you can use the Baking Steel, so unfortunately it’s not ideal for an unplanned pizza night. But other than that, we really think this is a stellar product that you ought to try for yourself.

Disclaimer: We received our Baking Steel for review purposes, however all our opinions are 100% ours. 

XX - The Food Gays