Showing posts with label food tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food tour. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Food Tour de Venice, CA by Avital Tours

by guest blogger @iam_robot

I recently got the chance to check out a one of the walking food tours by Avital, who took us on a tour around the Venice neighborhood.
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 This Venice food tour took us deep inside the center of the old city and allowed us to explore real stories of this beachfront neighborhood.  Snippets of lifestyles, cultures, and rich history came into light through bites of puff pastry, savory pizza, and sugary donut. Personally, I think it’s almost impossible to scour best places to eat by driving around aimlessly. A feast of this magnitude must only be countered with serious walking feast – worry not, we all walked ‘kind of’ leisurely. Without the guidance of Avital, I never would have ventured to some of these restaurants (at least not all at once) and certainly wouldn’t have ordered many of the things I tried. So if you decide to join – make sure to bring a hearty appetite, comfortable shoes, and strong sense of humor J

The tour begins with 2 shots of craft beer at Venice Ale House. Located strategically on the boardwalk, you can’t help but watch hipster and westsiders going about with their weirdness.  Moving along, we walked couple blocks to one of the narrow alleys to encounter a sleek, minimal storefront called as Dudley Market. 

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Dudley Market Interior
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Gnocco fritto, with Calabrian chili salsa and scallops at Dudley Market
After couple of beer shots at The Ale House, I thought we were getting greasy food to wash down the alcohol bloat. To my utmost surprise, a plate of Puff Pastry with scallop and Calabrian Chili Salsa came to sight within 5 minutes. I pretty much inhaled them with sips of fine Cava. I was amazed with Chef Jesse Barber’s (formerly of Barnyard and The Tasting Kitchen) creation – it’s simple, honest, and ingredient-centric. Definitely not the prototypical dish you’d find on beachfronts.
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Plant Food and Wine Interior
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Carrot Ginger Soup by Plant Food and Wine

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

A Calgary Food and Art Tour (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

I visited Calgary for the first time (OK, second time, but the first time was only for 2 hours so that doesn't count) earlier this summer. A great way to explore the city and especially its dining scene is to join Calgary Food Tours. I got a blogger discount through the Calgary Tourism Board so I took my cousins along! There are a few different tours you can choose from and in different areas of Calgary - I chose the Palette to Palate tour since it combined both food and viewing art in the surrounding area.
The meeting point was Hotel Arts in the downtown area, an appropriate place for an art tour.

Calgary Food Tour
Calgarians love their horses

Hotel Arts displays quite a few interesting modern art throughout the first floor - many of them are local artists from the Alberta area. Our guide (a lovely former Texan called Regan) took us through some of them, discussing the background and meaning of each.
Calgary Food Tour

For our first food stop, we stopped at Yellow Door Bistro, which was inside the Hotel Arts. Chef Duncan Ly from Yellow Door prepared some of the best carbonara pasta our group has ever had, topped with crispy pancetta and crisped basil leaves. The sweet, local tomatoes cut the richness of the dish.
Calgary Food Tour
They paired this with an Australian Sauvignon Blanc, which was quite nice.

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