Dirty Apron Deli and Cooking School

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Sean

The Dirty Apron is one of the more unique places to grab lunch in the downtown area. Nico and Karri Schuermans~the owners of Chambar and Cafe Medina have combined a deli of fine meats and cheese’s, ready to eat freshly made sandwiches and salads, a hot carvery and a gourmet grocery store all in one but to cap it off the also have a great cooking school with a variety of classes all in one cleverly designed space.

Great meats

Killer sandwiches

Tempting baked goods

The seating is communal at long tables and the have their house made chili sambal oil for you to jazz up your food if you like to.

I went with one of the baguette sandwiches~roasted chicken, arugula and sun-dried tomatoes with grana padano Parmesan and pesto mayo. They make their bread fresh all through out the day in small batches so whenever you get your sandwich have no worry~you bread is usually no more than an hour old. There was two halves to this sandwich and it was wrapped up nicely in paper, the chicken was moist and tender and all the ingredients worked well together.

I also got some of their fresh salads, they sell them on a /100 gram rate that’s around $3.50 (ish). I went split it up choice wise seeing everything was the same price so the hardest thing was choosing what to get out of the 6 different choices.

This is a Brussel sprout salad with prosciutto and broccoli. It was a nice fresh salad and the sprouts were cooked nicely but still crisp but without that cabbage taste, one thing I wish there was more of was the prosciutto.

The Mediterranean couscous was the other salad I got, it was a brightly flavored salad with the roasted red pepper and roasted onion being a balance to the vinaigrette.

With my sandwich and salad~I bought 100 grams of each my bill was around $17 with tax, seeing it’s really fresh great quality food the price is justified and I’ll totally be back.

An Afternoon Of Eating and Drinking Notturno Paninoteca’s New Menu

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Sean

Some big things have changed since my first post about Notturno~they’ve got their liquor license now and have fully opened for lunch and dinner service with a selection of great wines, beers and a bigger menu full of delish creations from Chef Adrian.

I was invited by the owner to come by and try some of these new treats and I ended up finding one of my new favorite beers so it was a winning day of great food, awesome restaurant talk and delish beer and Italian soda’s that would make your Nonna smile!

The menu has been expanded to include salumi plates, salads, brushette and of course their great panini’s.

A wine and beer menu has also been added, it’s posted on the wall and changes periodically~the guy’s at Notturno aren’t trying to carry every choice out there booze wise and are concentrating on great drinkable wines that also wont break the bank.

This is one of my new favorite beers, it’s from Spain and would never had been on my radar, the Estrella Damm INEDIT, it’s a unique coupage of barley malt and wheat, flavored with coriander, orange peel and liquorice. It really did compliment the dishes I had and was a pleasure to drink~I see many more bottles of this in my future.

“Inedit is the first beer specifically created to accompany food. It is born from the conviction that a beer that could be paired with the utmost respect to the best cuisine was necessary. That is its aim and its virtue, and that is what makes Inedit different, special and unique.”

It’s the only beer that I’ve heard of that suggests keeping the open bottle in an ice bucket between glass refills and also it’s best served in a wine glass, it’s on the menu here for $16 but we got 4 generous servings out of one bottle.

They also have brought in a line of premium Italian soda’s from Abbodino, there are 2 variety’s that they carry, I tried the orange flavor and it was just like drinking a carbonated orange, totally refreshing and a nice change from the San Pellegrino brand that I usually have.

This is the selection of bruschette that I had

The Crudo~fresh Albacore tuna crudo, chili aioli, cucumber and balsamic pearls. It was like a tuna salad that mom couldn’t make!, the spice wasn’t too strong from the chili aioli and the balsamic pearls bursting in your mouth were a great touch.

The Fico~Blue cheese aioli, black olive, walnut and fresh greens. The same ingredients that they have in the Fico panini but just in a smaller bite sized form, the blue cheese aioli and the walnuts compliment each other beautifully and the black olive added that nice salty hit.

The Tartufo Di Capra~Black truffle goat cheese, fresh greens and topped with tomato pearls. This was one of my favorites, the predominate flavor is yummy black truffles and the goat cheese is nice and creamy~the perfect touch to the truffle and the tomato pearls add that fresh acidic touch to break up the big flavors.

The Anatra~Duck prosciutto, goat cheese and arugula. The star of this bad boy was the duck prosciutto, it’s a nice meaty bite and was a pleasure to eat, I’ve had duck prosciutto before at a fine dining restaurant and really loved it. If you’re not a duck fan but like prosciutto try this~it’s nice and meaty but not in a gamey way.

Since I have a love of beets I had to try their Radice Insalata, it had beets, seasonal vegetables, taleggio cheese and a walnut vinaigrette. This was another hit and if you like beet salads this is for you!, the seasonal veg in this case was root vegetables like carrots and also yellow beets, green beans and the walnuts are ground up and put in the dressing so you get that nutty flavor in every bite.

To round things out i went with the ever so popular Calabrese Panini, it has spicy capicollo, spicy sopressata, salami, spicy pickled eggplant, provolone and goat cheese. For $9.50 its a great value seeing all the top quality salumi, the meats weren’t too spicy tho and the goat cheese really rounded out the big flavors.

From what I got to sample I think the larger menu is going to be a hit and is already proving to be pretty popular. Notturno is participating in the Vancouver Foodster Tasting Plates event coming up on Feb 15, 2012 along with a bunch of other great restaurants, they will be featuring the Crudo, Tartufo Di Capra and Fico brushette as their offering for the event, if you want to buy tickets to the event and see a complete line up of participating restaurants and menus please click here.

**Note of disclosure~all my food samples were provided free by Notturno and also my drinks were covered also, I was invited to try some items and wasn’t expected to write a post~I’m doing it because everything kicked butt and I wanted to spread the good food news.**

Acacia Fillo Bar-A Hidden Gem In A Foodies Paradise

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Sean

Hidden away in Denman Street between Delaney’s Coffee Shop and Fatburger is Acacia Fillo Bar. I’ve walked by here a million times not knowing the hidden gem that was right beneath my eyes.

Opened in 2005 by Vera and Ziggy, Vera is bringing traditional Bulgarian baking and comes from a family in the restaurant business and she a owned a successful restaurant and catering company in her home country before coming to Canada.

The service here is warm and friendly, the staff are ready to answer any questions you might have, it’s a comfortable, relaxing place to enjoy breakfast and read the paper with your coffee and a lot of the locals seem to believe that we well-it was constantly busy on both of my visits and pretty much everyone I saw eat the compliment the chef of how good everything was and I totally agree with them!

The signature dish here is the Banitza, it’s like a layered phyllo pie but the layers are end to end instead of on top of each other~it’s totally delicious and a must try for your 1st visit.

This is the spinach and feta banitza, all of the banitza’s have eggs in them but you state the other fillings more than the egg, the feta used here is from Bulgaria and all the phyllo here is made from scratch, what really got me was this~from a photographers point of view

the individual compartments of flavor and layers of phyllo and how they translate in a picture~OK now back to the food!, I loved this dish!

It was served with a small spinach salad with balsamic dressing and a side of plain yogurt with pepper~both the salad dressing and yoghurt help cut the richness of the banitza, for $8.50 it was a great meal and a solid value.

Next up is the leek, feta and egg banitza, just like the spinach but leek this time, the flavor on this one was more savory because of the leek and the feta stood out more on this one as well~again another delicious dish and the same price as the spinach and feta banitza.

Lastly I tried something else on the menu~a filled Phyllo, this one was mushrooms and spinach

This was made fresh because they were out at the time, the filling was simple~just spinach and sautéed mushrooms, it was ok but I enjoyed the other items I had more, there were also 2 different sides with this main

a simple salad like with my other meals

and roasted potatoes and yams, these I really liked, the yams were nicely seasoned and so were the potatoes. This meal was a bit more than what I had before-$16 and change including a can of pop.

At the end of the day I enjoyed my visits here and am definitely going to make it a regular breakfast spot, if you find yourself in the area and want to try something a little different check Acacia Fillo Bar out, they are also open for dinner and have a selection desserts made in-house as well as catering services available.